


Score

by SpaceWaffleHouseTM



Series: Score Universe [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: A whole lot of Fleetwood Mac, Alternate Universe - College/University, Chekhov’s Futon, Chekhov’s Library, Definite Smut, Emotional Slow Burn, Enthusiastic Consent, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Friends With Benefits, Friends to Lovers, Loss of Virginity, Multi, Mutual Pining, Oral Sex, Porn with Feelings, Porn with a lot more plot than I intended, Sharing a Bed, Slow Burn, Tags are a Hot Mess, This Is A Den Of Sin, a lot of smut, and they're not gonna stop, at his peak, but there's also fluff, from the get go, not so much otherwise, porn with a little plot, rated E for the Rice Purity Test, saint solo is dead party, the princess bride references are real, the rice purity test, virgin ben, will have to update the tags as I go because there's just too much to unpack here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-07-20 20:38:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 104,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16145063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceWaffleHouseTM/pseuds/SpaceWaffleHouseTM
Summary: Ben's friends convince him to take the Rice Purity Test, but when he and Rey are revealed to have the highest scores of their friends, they quickly form a pact to beat Poe's out by the end of the semester.





	1. Eighty One

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to send me straight to hell. Maybe not this first chapter, but the others certainly will. I'll have to go to every religious building I can find to cleanse my soul after this. Anyway, quick thanks to @LuxLush and @reyofdarkness in the writing Den for helping me come up with a title for this, and the sprinters for reading the bits and pieces I've shared and providing commentary. Without further adieu, let's get this started, shall we?
> 
> **edit post completion: this is marked as a series, but the end of this fic is the end of this fic, you’ll see why**

Ben was going to regret this. He should’ve known better than to ask his friends what something was before googling it by now, but it was a lesson he most certainly had not learned. Now he was being dragged back to the freshman dorms by Poe, Rey, and Phasma who were all eagerly awaiting the moment they’d reveal his Rice Purity Test score. What the hell had he gotten himself into?

“It asks you one hundred questions about your… experiences to determine how pure you are,” Poe explained as he held the door open for the others.

Ben quirked an eyebrow as he walked into the lobby. “What kind of experiences are we talking about here?”

“Nothing we should be talking about in public,” Rey muttered, almost under her breath as she walked past him to where two elevators were positioned at the far wall.

Poe snorted his response, earning him a smack in the gut from Rey as she shushed him urgently to prevent him from saying anything explaining the test in the slightly crowded lobby. “Oh, lighten up, Rey, everyone in this building’s a slut, even if they don’t talk about it,” he replied, reaching around her to press the up button.

Rey scoffed at him. “Yeah, there’s a reason they don’t talk about it, Poe, some people have shame.”

The elevator dinged it’s arrival as the doors opened, and the four of them piled into the car before pressing the button for the fifth floor where Ben’s dorm sat at the far end of a long hallway. Poe eagerly pressed the close doors button a good five more times than was necessary to ensure that no one else in the lobby got on their elevator—earning him at least three glares from angry college students as they failed to join them on the ride up—then they began to ascend.

“So what kind of experiences are you talking about exactly?” Ben asked again, causing the others to laugh loudly as the elevator climbed the first five floors of their building.

“Sex, drugs, alcohol, getting arrested… anything that will send you to hell,” Phasma explained, and Poe immediately began to rub his hands together, a wicked grin growing on his face as Ben’s grew pale. He’d never given any of those too much thought—well, he’d certainly been drunk and you couldn’t be friends with Poe without having smoked at least one blunt, so he supposed he wasn’t exactly the most saintly of people, but still. The sex questions were going to absolutely murder him.

“Oh, this is gonna be so good,” Poe said, still creating friction between his palms as the elevator opened, and the other three rushed Ben down the hall. He was fairly certain that if they moved any faster, they’d break his neck.

Before Ben could think to ask them to slow down, they’d already arrived at the dorm he shared with Poe’s boyfriend, Finn, and Poe was fishing his own dorm keys out of his pocket. He gasped in shock as Poe’s hand slid in and out of his back pocket in the span of about two seconds, but he wasn’t exactly surprised. It wasn’t the first time he’d pulled something like that, and after being friends for the last five years, they’d seen worse from one another.

Poe quickly slid the key into the lock, and thrust the door open, rushing himself, Ben, and the others inside at breakneck speed. “Come on, come on, I’ve only got an hour before my next class we need to do this _quickly_.”

“You can’t rush art, Dameron,” Phasma reminded him as she walked into the room and plopped herself down on the futon that rested beneath Ben’s lofted bed. “You may just have to miss the results.”

A laugh escaped both Ben and Rey as Poe’s face paled. Still, he was smirking as he launched himself onto Finn’s empty bed on the other side of the small room. “I’ll skip class if I have to, I’ll do it. It’s not like we’re taking a test or anything.”

“Isn’t attendance part of your grade?” Ben asked.

“Shut up, Solo.”

Another round of stupid giggling passed between the group of friends as Ben and Rey sat beside Phasma on the couch. “Alright, then, it’s time,” the blonde announced, then she held her hand out to Ben. “Unlock your phone and hand it over.”

Ben took in a deep breath, not particularly wanting to give his phone to Phasma, but also realizing that his friends would definitely pester him into the end of time about doing this if he didn’t just get it over with now. He obeyed the command, unlocking his phone and opening safari before handing it over to Phasma, who stifled a laugh at his last google search—Hugh Jackman’s height, he’d had a burning desire to know— before she typed something else into the search bar. Once she finished, a page swathed in yellow loaded, and she handed the phone back to Ben.

Poe snickered as Ben began to read the first question. “Moment of truth.”

Ben laughed at the first question, “Of course I’ve held hands romantically,” he said. “I thought this was supposed to be scandalous.”

“Just wait,” Rey promised him, patting his arm as he began to read the other questions. She then paused for a moment, then he heard her shift so she was facing Poe. “You know, it’s been a while since I took this… I’ve definitely done a bit more since then… I think the rest of us should take it, too. That way Ben’s not alone.”

Ben looked up briefly to find Poe’s grin rivaled the Cheshire cat’s. “That is the best thing you could’ve possibly said to me.”

Rey giggled, then Ben focused his attention back on the test before him… which had started to progressively get more risqué. He could feel his cheeks turning red as he scrolled past questions he most certainly could not answer “yes,” to. His cheeks turned more read as he checked off a few of the masturbation questions, then his jaw fell open, “Fondled or had my butt cheeks fondled?” he asked.

Poe made a noise that wasn’t entirely human as he buried his face into Finn’s pillow. “Oh _Jesus Ican’thandlethis_ ,” he wheezed.

Rey and Phasma were both snickering quietly as well, though a brief glance at Rey revealed her cheeks were slowly turning pink as well. “Had blue balls?”

“Mate, you’ve got to stop reading them out loud, we’ll die,” Phasma warned him, but that only made Ben want to read them more. If he was going to suffer from this, they were going to suffer, too.

Ben blinked in astonishment as he reached another definitely scandalous question. “Ingested someone else’s genital secretion?” he squeaked, and Poe absolutely doubled over on the bed while Rey and Phasma held onto each other for support, their laughter sounding more like choked sobbing than anything. When he looked over, tears were leaking from Phasma’s eyes, and Rey was even more of a tomato than Ben suspected he was.

“Keep going, buddy, you’re almost halfway there,” Poe said as he gathered himself, fanning his face to cool down.

Ben smirked at him, then he looked back down at the test before him. “Kicked a roommate out to commit a sexual act?” He looked at Poe, who put his hands up.

“Technically it wasn’t _my_ roommate.”

“I hate you.”

Poe blew him a kiss, then pointed to Ben’s phone. “Hurry up, I’ve got to get to class.”

“We all know you have no intention of going to that class, Poe, don’t even pretend,” Rey said in response, causing Ben to chuckle as he glanced back down at the phone, and continued to struggle taking the test with a straight face.

He crossed off most of the alcohol ones, followed by tobacco—apparently Hookah did count—and marijuana, and cringed as the question about being sent to the principal’s office came up. He hadn’t meant to punch that guy in the face during homecoming senior year, but the asshole had finally managed to push his last button and, well, his fist just couldn’t help itself.

“Urinated in public?” Ben asked out loud, then he glanced at all of his friends as they continued snickering away at his humiliation. “Gone skinny dipping? _Streaking?_ ”

He successfully skipped all the ones about getting arrested and the stripper, then he turned pink all the way to his ears when he reached the questions about whether or not he’d had sexual intercourse, which he was fully prepared to skip, until he looked at one of them in confusion.

“What’s got you now, Solo?” Phasma asked, leaning forward around Rey to try and see what he was looking at.

“It just says… sixty nine and question mark?” Ben asked, and the room paused for a moment, a silence hanging heavy in the air before the other three all began to wheeze, and Poe fell to the floor she was laughing so hard. His eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. What in the fresh hell was so funny about this question?

Rey rested her elbow on his shoulder a second later, and sighed as she came down from her laughter. “Ben, it’s asking you if you’ve ever sixty nined.”

He blinked at her.

“The sex position?”

He blinked at her again.

“... Oh my god…”

It took him a second, but just before Poe was about to launch himself into a collegiate level explanation of the numeric sex position, it came to him. “I know what it is, I swear,” he said in a rush, putting his hands up to stop his friend from talking. “It just took me a second, I’m not a complete idiot.”

“Mmmhmmm… I’m sure,” Phasma muttered, and Rey smacked her arm a second later.

“Ignore her, keep going,” Rey encouraged him, and with a roll of his eyes, Ben continued taking the test.

“Had sexual intercourse ten or more times?” he asked incredulously, then he glanced up at Poe, who shrugged as he stood up, and flopped back onto his boyfriend’s bed. “Christ.”

“ _Had sexual intercourse in a swimming pool?_ ” Ben’s voice dropped to a whisper, causing his friends to chorus, “Keep going Ben,” in perfect unison.

With another eye roll, Ben skipped all of the sex questions, only stopping again when he reached the orgy question. Before he could even try to comment on it, Rey was smacking his arm and urging him to go on. “But… Rey…”

“Ben, keep going. I know it’s odd. I haven’t done that one either.” She glanced pointedly at Poe, who put his hands up in protest as he denied having anything to do with an orgy of any sort.

Ben snickered under his breath, and proceeded to scroll to the bottom of the test without checking off anything else, though his eyebrows nearly reached his hairline at the sight of the incest, beastiality, and voyeurism questions. “Christ, this is filthy,” he muttered.

“Just hit show me my results!” Poe cried, slamming his palm against Finn’s bed as a wide grin broke out on his face.

Being petty was one of Ben’s many fortes, and he pretended like his thumb missed the button a few times—earning groans from all of his friends, and several smacks on his bicep from Rey—before he finally hit “show me my results,” and the test revealed to him just how pure he was. “I got an eighty one,” he said, then he looked at the others, trying to gauge their reactions. “Is that bad? That seems high.”

Poe’s jaw dropped open slightly. “Ben… the higher your score, the more pure you are. You’re practically a fucking saint.” He rolled over off of the bed, and walked over to the futon, stealing Ben’s phone from his hands. He ignored his friend’s protests as he looked at the score with his own eyes, then flipped the page back to see what Ben had checked off. “Oh my god…”

“What?” Ben asked, attempting to stand up to steal his phone from Poe’s hands, but it was to no avail, as both Rey and Phasma reached out hands to keep him down. “What is it?”

“Ben,” Poe breathed, turning to face him as he handed back the phone. “You’re so pure… It’s adorable!”

His cheeks flushed again as Rey reached up to ruffle his hair. “Aw, Ben, don’t be embarrassed, I’m sure my score won’t be much lower than yours,” she said kindly, then Poe burst into raucous laughter.

“Rey, I know _first-fucking-hand_ that your score will be _much_ lower than his is.”

“Oh my god it was _one time_!” she protested, slamming her spare palm into her forehead as Poe laughed even harder, sitting down on the floor as he tried and failed to contain his laughter. “I’m just trying to be nice to my friend, Poe, cut me some slack.” Her words were serious, but her voice was threatening a giggle fit as well, one that Ben found infectious as he too started to chuckle.

Poe continued snickering quietly for another couple of seconds, then his grin spread wide again. “So, Ben’s a saint… How about you, Rey?”

“Oh, come on…”

“You’re the one who suggested everyone take this after Ben! I’d say that means you go next.”

Ben looked over to find Rey’s cheeks turning crimson, then she slowly nodded, and pulled out her phone. They all waited with held breath as they watched her type in the web address for the test, and within seconds, the yellow screen appeared on her phone. Before Ben could watch her start checking things off, however, Rey hid her phone close to her chest. “I’m taking it in the bathroom, I’m not having you lot putting pressure on me.”

“Pressure? Us? Never!” Phasma replied sarcastically, and Rey flipped her off as she walked into Poe and Finn’s bathroom with a huff.

Once the door was closed, Phasma and Poe rounded on Ben. “So, tell us everything you’ve done,” the latter of the two commanded, then the former scoffed. 

“We both know he hasn’t done shit, Poe, all he’s done is touch a hand, drink, and have a wank or two.” She looked over at Ben. “Am I wrong?”

Ben swallowed, then he shook his head. “No, that’s all true.”

“Ben have you ever even been kissed?” Poe asked, looking at him with a hint of sympathy in his eyes.

“... No,” Ben said sheepishly, and Poe’s jaw dropped.

“Never? Guy as hot as you has seriously never kissed anyone?”

“Nope.”

“Why?”

“I just… never found the right person I guess,” he said, then the door to the bathroom burst open, and Rey walked out with her head hung low.

She outstretched her hand in front of her, her phone’s screen displaying her score in big, red letters that announced she’d gotten a fifty seven. Poe immediately burst into more laughter. “Seriously? That’s it? Only a fifty seven?” he asked in disbelief. “Rey, you may just be the most innocent slut in history.”

Her tongue poked out between her lips as she flopped back down on the couch, though this time she laid down across it, her feet crossed over Phasma’s lap while her head rested in Ben’s as she rolled her eyes at Poe. “Maybe, but you’re the biggest slut, Poe.”

Poe put his hands up. “You know what? That’s fair.”

Rey grinned wickedly, then she gestured to Poe. “I think it’s your turn now.”

Their friend gave her a wink, then he, too was looking up the test on his phone, a wicked grin on his face as he began checking things off on the test one by one. “I bet I have the lowest score out of all of you.”

Ben glanced over at his friends’ faces, and Rey was nodding sheepishly while Phasma’s remained neutral as she watched Poe take the test.

Throughout the duration of Poe’s test, he snickered continually, but he didn’t try to ask the group any bewildered questions or comment on them like Ben had. By the time it was over, Poe was grinning proudly and his screen was thrust out in front of them to reveal a bold and proud twenty six. “Ta-da!”

“Holy shit,” Ben breathed.

“You’re such a slut,” Rey replied at the same time, then Ben looked down at the head in his lap, and the two of them shared a laugh at their simultaneous expressions of shock. The laughter dragged on for a few seconds too long though, for a moment later they were interrupted by a clearing throat, and both of them looked up to find Poe staring at them with a quirked eyebrow.

“If you two are done eye fucking, Phasma still hasn’t taken the test.”

Ben instantly peeled his eyes away from Rey’s, and glanced over at their other friend. “Phas?”

The blonde rolled her eyes, then she pulled her phone out from underneath Rey’s legs, and proceeded to prop her phone up on her calves as she too began to take the test. “This is so stupid.”

“We all agreed we’d do it,” Poe reminded her. “Just because you’re scared to out yourself as a virgin doesn’t mean you get out of it.”

Phasma quirked an eyebrow, but didn’t remove her eyes from the test as she continued scrolling through it.

While they waited, Ben’s hands found their way into Rey’s hair, and he began to casually braid it while she hummed contentedly. “If you make me look like an idiot, Ben, I’ll kill you.”

Ben only chuckled, and continued pulling her hair into the braid while their friend scrolled further and further down the test’s yellow web page. After a few more minutes, he had braided a sophisticated little row into Rey’s hair, and Phasma announced she was finished with the test.

Poe immediately sat up bolt-right in his boyfriend’s bed, and held out his hand for her to show him what was on her phone’s screen. Phasma nodded, then she reached over with that same neutral expression she’d had earlier, and placed it in his waiting hand. It felt like time passed in slow motion as their friend grinned upon receiving the phone, then he held it to his chest, and looked at the others. “Moment of truth.”

Then Slowly, agonizingly slowly, Poe removed the phone from his chest, and glanced at Phasma’s score for the first time. In rapid succession, his eyes went wide, his jaw dropped, and the phone fell from his hands and onto the pile of clothes stacked by the floor—likely the only thing saving it from breaking, since Phasma had no phone case—as Poe sat there in shock. His head then fell into his hands, and he breathed heavily.

“What?” Ben asked, looking between Poe, and the knowing hint of a smirk on Phasma’s face. “What is it?”

Poe continued to just stare at her. “You have the lowest score I’ve ever seen.”

It felt like the air pressure had dropped considerably in the aftermath of Poe’s news. Ben and Rey both blinked at him expectantly as they waited for him to share just what he had seen, then when he didn’t say anything for a whole minute of just staring at his screen in shock, the latter of the two groaned. “Would you just bloody tell us what she got already? I’m gonna think you’re faking it until—“

“Thirteen,” Phasma interrupted her casually, and when Ben’s shocked face turned to look at her, she met his eyes head on without shifting her demeanor. “My score is a thirteen.”

“Holy fucking shit,” Ben breathed, dropping the braid he’d created in Rey’s hair to run his hand through his own. Compared to Phasma, he was the perfect, virginal saint. Well, by Poe’s standards he was certainly already that, but still in his eyes what his friend had gotten was an utter impossibility. Rey’s score, and even Poe’s score he could certainly beat. But not Phasma’s. Not ever. He’d certainly have to break the law, possibly become a voyeur, and possibly impregnate someone. All of which were terrifying prospects he dared not touch.

“Phasma, may I ask, what in the god damn shit did you do?” Rey’s voice was tinged with the same intense disbelief everyone else’s carried, and as she lifted her head a few inches off of Ben’s lap, it only grew more high pitch. “Are you actually a fucking criminal?”

“I’m secretly a prostitute,” Phasma droned sarcastically, then she finally smiled, and shook her head. “Alright, I suppose I owe you an explanation.”

At long last, Poe’s head poked out from behind his hands. “Uh, yeah… duh! What the fuck have you been doing all this time?”

“Well, for starters, I’m a junior, and you’re all underclassmen, so automatically I’ve done a bit more than you.”

“That’s fair, but what the fuck, phas?”

“Listen, I was a student activist in my freshman year… and not one of the peaceful ones either. I definitely got arrested and spent the night in a cell. As for the other questions… I lost my virginity in a foursome because Armitage Hux is a colossal slut when he’s drunk, and a game of strip cards against humanity took an… interesting turn.”

“You lost your virginity in a _foursome?_ ” Ben asked incredulously, unable to comprehend even losing his virginity to one person.

“Strip cards against humanity?” Rey squeaked.

Poe simply laughed, clapping his hands together at the revelation that Phasma had actually been more out there than he was. “You were a student activist?”

“Yes, yes, I know, it was an interesting time to say the least, anyway, that’s my story, and now we’ve all taken the test so can we move on, please?” She checked the time on her phone, just as a text message came in, one which she quickly hit. “Speaking of Hux, I’ve got to go he needs me to pick his dorm lock. Forgot his keys again.” She then bent down to pick up her things from the floor, and Rey lifted her legs to allow her to remove herself from the couch.

“You can pick locks, Phas?” Poe asked, shock still lacing his voice after all his friend had told him.

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me Dameron,” she said with a wink thrown his way as she slung her book bag over her shoulder. “I’ll see you later.”

“Bye…” Poe mustered weakly, then once she walked out of the dorm, he collapsed on his boyfriend’s bed all over again. “Holy fuck, that was eye opening.”

“No kidding,” Rey said as she crossed her legs on the new couch space. “I didn’t think anyone was more of a slut than you.”

“Neither did I, but apparently I was wrong!”

“It was the fact that she was just so casual about it that got me,” Ben admitted, his hands finding Rey’s hair again, and creating another braid in her long tresses. “She’s done so much and you wouldn’t be able to tell. None of us had any idea.”

“Well, to be fair, Ben, just about anything would get you,” Poe reminded him, “You’re a cute little saint. I bet you’ve never even skipped a class.”

No. He hadn’t. Out of all the minorly rebellious things he could do as a college—or even _high school_ —student he hadn’t even so much as skipped class. He was truly a saint. The realization had him feeling a little bit disappointed to the point where he didn’t even notice that Poe had announced he was going to head to his class, speaking of skipping, and he walked out the door. The only thing rousing Ben back to attention was his voice calling out “And don’t have sex on the futon!” as he left.

“Ben, we now have to have sex on the futon,” Rey said sarcastically, though still Ben’s Cock twitched in his jeans at the thought.

Out loud though he simply let out a soft chuckle, then went back to quietly braiding her hair in his misery. He could feel her eyes on him the entire time, and sense the frown that had formed on her face. “Ben what’s wrong?”

He shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

“Ben, I’ve known you since we were three. I know when something’s bothering you. What’s going on?”

There really was no hiding things from Rey, was there? Not when she knew him more intimately—yet perfectly platonically—than anyone else did. They’d been friends since they played in sandboxes. They’d grown up together, and the fact that they now went to the same college meant they’d share even more of their time together and bond further. Of course she knew him inside and out. Of course he couldn’t hide a damned thing from her.

Taking a deep breath, Ben continued his work on her hair, weaving a tapestry into it of an intricate design as he spoke. “You’re all just so… experienced. You’ve done so much and I’ve done nothing. I don’t know, I guess I just feel a little bit behind.”

Rey reached up a hand, and rested it over his from where it was busy working on her hair, then she smiled at him. “Ben, you don’t have to have done any of the things we’ve done. They don’t matter. I don’t love you because you’re a big slut who’s kissed every girl in school and smoked pot where you shouldn’t have. I love you because you’re an amazing person and the best friend I could’ve ever asked for.”

Something about her words settled deep in Ben’s chest, sending his heart into overdrive as he ceased his work in her hair, though he left his hands there so she wouldn’t be tempted to remove hers. “Thanks, Rey.”

Another blinding smile. “Besides, I’m not all that experienced either. Sure Poe and I hooked up a couple of times and you remember how I regret losing my virginity on junior prom night to that one absolute prick.”

“I’ll never forget.”

“But I haven’t done anything that exciting, honestly. I’m fairly boring and for our other friends to have done so much, it makes me feel left out, too.”

“Well, If it helps, you’re not alone.”

She squeezed his hand. “Neither are you, now can you promise me that you won’t ever value your worth based on what experiences you’ve had ever again?”

“I promise,” he replied, then a sigh left his lips. “But think of how satisfying it would be to have a score lower than Dameron’s. If I were to come up to him at some point—say the end of the semester—and say I had a twenty five on the rice purity test, he’d publically shit himself.”

Rey hummed her assent. “Oh, god, Ben that would be so satisfying. His fucking face, I can picture it already.”

“I just want to see if there’s any chance I can _possibly_ beat his score by the end of the semester. I’ve got two more months, so that’s not very much time to find anyone to help—“

“I’ll do it,” Rey said suddenly, surprising Ben as she sprang up from his lap, forcing him to detangle his fingers from her hair as she moved abruptly. “I’ll help you.”

“What?”

“I want to beat Poe’s score, too. Why don’t we do it together?”

“Are you proposing…?”

“When you’re ready, Ben, and only when you’re ready, I’m all in to help you beat Poe’s score.”

Ben’s breathing shook as he looked at the girl before him, his best friend, and felt an odd rush of adrenaline shoot through him as it registered just what she was offering to do. “So does this make us friends with benefits?”

A laugh escaped Rey, then she moved a little closer to Ben. “Not yet,” she said, resting a hand on his shoulder. “It’s like I said. Not until you’re ready, and if you’re never ready, then that’s okay, too. We don’t have to do this, I just figured it’d be better if it was me and not some stranger.

“It is,” he assured her, then he forced himself to look into her eyes. She was a lot closer than he thought she was. Rey was maybe a few inches from him, the proximity offering him a fine view of every tiny detail of her face, one which Ben appreciated greatly as his eyes traveled down slowly until they reached her lips. They then very quickly wandered back up to meet her eyes, but he’d been caught and the damage had been done. Ben was fucked.

Mercifully, The corner of Rey’s mouth lifted, and she grinned at him. “You know, I seem to recall kissing being one of the questions on the test.”

And just like that, Ben Solo had a heart attack at the ripe old age of nineteen. Swallowing nervously, he nodded. “Yeah, it was,” he said, then he promptly wondered when his hands had started shaking in his lap.

“Ben, can I try something?”

_Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit._

“Yeah, anything,” he replied, then Rey’s hand gently cupped his jaw, and her other one tightened its grip on his shoulder.

“Tell me to stop if you need me to.”

“I will.” Then he sat perfectly still as Rey leaned forward slowly, agonizingly slowly, her eyes slowly drifting shut. For some reason, Ben couldn’t bring himself to look away. All of it was too much, the sight of Rey’s hooded eyes, her soft looking mouth, the feeling of her warm breath ghosting his face as she drew closer and closer—it was going to kill him. It wasn’t until her lips were a hair's breadth away from his that he dared to close his eyes, and wait for the inevitable kiss.

Rey’s lips met his in the softest, most gentle touch he’d ever experienced in his life. The trembling in his hands intensified as she pulled away slightly, as if gauging his reaction, and stayed away from him for a few seconds. Those seconds were easily the most agonizing of his life, and as the tension built, Ben felt it getting ready to snap.

It finally did in the form of Ben’s still shaky hand grabbing a hold of the base of Rey’s skull, and pulling her back to him, his lips caressing hers as he pulled her in for his real first kiss. She seemed surprised at first, then she melted into it, and kissed him back eagerly as a sort of electric energy built up between them. Ben had heard stories, he’d seen movies, and read books, but nothing could have prepared him for the way Rey kissed him.

She was kissing him like the world was ending and this was their last chance. Her hand reached around from his jaw to bury itself in his hair, tugging lightly, which caused him to gasp into the kiss, allowing her tongue access into his mouth—access he was more than willing to give— as she deepened the kiss, intensifying it to another level. The whole thing had Ben feeling as if his body was on fire as it registered with him that he was really, truly being kissed for the first time, and not just by anyone, but by his best friend—by Rey.

Ben smiled into the kiss as he, too, deepened it, and one of his arms came up to grab around her waist before he pulled her closer to him until once again she was on his lap. Rey’s free arm wrapped around his neck as she held onto him, tucking her legs on one side of his while she kissed him, still thoroughly intent on giving him a heart attack.

After a time that was both too long and too short, Rey pulled away gasping for breath as she looked down at him, and Ben did much the same as he stared up at her a little wide eyed. It had been nineteen years of being a complete and utter saint, and he’d finally been kissed, and thoroughly so. His heart was beating rapidly against his sternum, threatening to break the bone protecting it as he stared up at his best friend, who was smiling down at him warmly.

Once more, she ran her hand through his hair, then she laughed. “And now you’ve been kissed.”

Ben couldn’t find any words to say, so he simply nodded, and leaned his head back against the futon. She was saying something but he couldn’t hear it over the rush of blood filling his ears as his mind replayed the kiss on a loop. He’d always found her attractive, sure. He was human and had eyes. He’d be stupid not to find Rey absolutely beautiful, but he’d only scarcely thought about her like that over the years. It wasn’t something he’d fantasized over as his teenage years progressed and he’d grown older, but now that it had happened...

She’d started something he wasn’t sure either one of them would be able to stop, and as he looked at her—she’d moved off to the side of the futon to gather her things—to see her still smiling up at him as she talked, he wasn’t sure he ever wanted it to. The two braids he’d weaved through her hair swayed slightly as she moved, and stood up off the futon to sling her backpack over her shoulders. That was what finally roused him to attention as he realized she was leaving.

“Where are you going?” he asked softly, his voice full of disappointment at the thought of her leaving after he’d experienced that kiss with her.

“I’ve got a lab, Ben, mine starts half an hour after Poe’s class does. I can’t skip it, so as much as I’d love to stay and plot out how we’re going to beat Poe’s score…” She leaned over him, and tucked a strand of his hair behind his ears. “I can’t. But I promise you, I’ll be back later, and we’ll start planning this.”

“Promise?”

“Promise,” she repeated, then she leaned over, and pressed another brief, chaste kiss to his lips before winking at him, and walking out of the room, leaving Ben with his racing heart and an extremely unfortunate tent in his pants.

A delighted cry left Ben the moment the door closed behind Rey, and he collapsed onto the futon, propping his feet up in the wall as he stared up at the bottom of his lofted bed. The semester was only just halfway through, but already he could tell he was going to enjoy the second half much more than the first. _Game on, Dameron,_ he thought, then he closed his eyes, and replayed the memory of his first kiss a few more times.


	2. Seventy Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH my god I didn't expect the response this got. I was overwhelmed by all of the amazing comments y'all truly made my day. Anywho, shout out to the writing den folks for encouraging this debauchery... which I've edited and am now posting using a library computer. Fitting given the contents of this chapter. Lastly, If y'all leave a comment, let me know your RPT score I'm curious lmao.

That afternoon Ben was haunted—but in the good way—by that kiss. He’d laid out on the futon for ages after that with the intention of napping, but he only wound up daydreaming about Rey’s hands in his hair and her tongue in his mouth. His brain was rendered completely nonfunctional by what Rey had done to him just before she’d left, and the erection tenting his pants certainly wasn’t helping either. 

That afternoon he’d knocked off three more points on the test, thanks to her. He now boasted a slightly less pure seventy eight, and it had all happened within the span of about five minutes. Five glorious minutes that made him a changed man. Ben wasn’t sure how he’d gone so long without experiencing that, but it was as he’d told Poe. He just wasn’t sure he’d found the right person. 

A groan left his lips as a slightly intrusive thought made its way into his head. What if Rey was that right person?  _ No.  _ They were friends still, only now they happened to be friends who kissed and… eventually he knew they’d wind up tangled between the sheets together. But friends did that all the time, didn’t they? Just because they were now kissing and would soon be sleeping together  _ did not  _ mean he was in love with her and what they were doing was romantic. In fact, the intentions behind this plan had been purely petty in nature. 

They were doing this to spite Poe, and for no other reason. 

Ben’s train of thought was then interrupted by the sound of the dorm’s front—and only— door opening, and he opened his eyes to see his actual roommate walking in with a large amount of textbooks in his hands. “Hey, Ben,” Finn said as he set down the colossal stack on his desk. “What’s up, man?”

In response, Ben threw his head back and laughed deeply. “Ask your boyfriend.”

Finn’s face paled slightly. “What did he do now? You didn’t catch him…” he gestured vaguely to his groin area, which only caused Ben’s cheeks to flush in response. 

“No! No, god no.” He shook his head. “We took the rice purity test… I don’t know if you know what that is…?” Hesitantly, he looked up at Finn, only to find his jaw had dropped slightly, and his mouth was slowly forming a grin. “What?”

Finn burst into laughter and immediately leaned against his bed for support. “He made you take  _ that? _ ”

“Yeah, he did…”

“Oh, man, I’m so sorry,” Finn said as he collected himself. “Ah, what’s your score?”

Ben hesitated for a moment, remembering the reaction his friends had given him to his remarkably high score, but then he was quickly reminded of what had just gone down with Rey, and a smirk rose to his face. “I, uh, got an eighty one.”

“Aw, Ben that’s so cute,” Finn replied, then he began to slide his backpack carefully from his shoulders, just as Ben added the rest of the story. 

“But it’s a seventy eight now, thanks to Rey.”

The backpack fell to the floor with a loud  **_BANG!_ ** as Finn’s jaw quickly followed suit. “What?!”

“Yeah, she kissed me,” Ben explained, then he wondered if he shouldn’t have said anything. He and Rey hadn’t gotten a chance to talk too deeply about the bet. All they’d agreed upon was a deadline. They just had to be done by the end of the semester, so December was their end goal, but other than that… 

He looked at Finn, who was still staring at him in disbelief as he processed the news that not only had Ben experienced his first kiss, but he’d experienced it with Rey. His roommate was a trustworthy guy, and generally he’d been good at keeping secrets, but keeping a secret from Poe Dameron would be a whole other ballpark. Still, he’d been friends with Finn for longer than Poe had, and thus he trusted him almost as much as he trusted Rey. He could tell him about the bet. 

Slowly, Ben sat up, and leaned forward, propping his arms on his legs. “There’s something I need to explain.”

Over the next ten minutes, Ben told Finn everything that had gone down. From the moment he had asked what the rice purity test was in the courtyard between the classrooms, to the moment Rey had pulled him in for a quick kiss goodbye, he said it all. The other man’s eyes had gone wide like saucers as he listened intently, hanging from Ben’s every word. 

“Oh wow,” Finn breathed when it was all over, then he jumped up onto his bed, and laughed. “Well, that’s… that’s something.”

“Yeah, yeah it is. Now remember, don’t tell Poe a word of this.”

“I won’t tell Poe a damn thing,” Finn promised, crossing his chest. “I think this is absolutely hilarious, and I want you to win.”

“Really?” Ben quirked a surprised eyebrow at him, his voice rising in pitch slightly from shock. 

Finn gave him a nod. “Yeah, it’s like you said. It’d be so satisfying to see Poe’s face when he realizes you have a lower score than he does.”

The two men shared a laugh, then Ben’s phone vibrated in his pants pocket, and he reached down into it to see that he had a text from Rey asking him to meet her in the library. More specifically, she was asking him to meet her in one of the group study rooms that the fourth floor boasted. The floor designated for quiet study, he couldn’t help but notice. 

He was on his feet in seconds, grabbing his student ID and keys off of his futon. Finn’s eyes were on him the entire time, confusion furrowing his brows as he looked up at him. “Where are you going?” 

Ben gave him a wink. “To meet Rey,” he said, then he smiled at the sound of Finn’s mischievous chuckle as he walked out the door, and tried his best not to sprint down the hallways. He wasn’t exactly about to put off the chance that she’d kiss him like she had again. 

The elevator ride to the building’s lobby was the slowest he’d ever experienced. As he rode down, Ben tapped his feet impatiently on the floor. Five… four… three… two… finally he was free, and he practically bolted out of the elevator and into the lobby like a bowling ball through the pins that were his fellow classmates. 

“Watch where you’re going,  _ asshole!” _ someone shouted, but Ben barely heard them as he continued his power walk to the library. 

He considered himself extremely lucky that it happened to be one of the closest buildings to them on campus, and within minutes he was striding through its doors and boarding another elevator up to the fourth floor. Up to  _ Rey.  _

His luck seemed to run out then, though as people joined him on this elevator, and pressed the button to every single floor standing between him and his destination. This would’ve annoyed him on any day, but on one such as this, it was even worse. He swayed back and forth between his two feet, feeling almost jittery as they stopped on the second floor, and half the elevator got off. He bit his lower lip to keep from grumbling bitterly at them, and continued to wait patiently until at last the doors opened on the fourth floor, and he pushed past everyone else still on the damned thing so that he could finally get to her. 

By the time he reached the study room Rey had set up for them, Ben was thoroughly out of breath, and she looked up as he closed the door behind him with concern in her eyes. “Are you alright?” 

“I’m…” pant, “fine…” he said, then he ran a hand through his hair. “I just may have jogged to get here.”

She snorted as she bent down, and unzipped the backpack resting at her feet before she pulled out a notebook, and presented him with it. “Shall we begin, then?”

_ Oh, I’d be more than happy to,  _ he thought, but out loud he said nothing and simply nodded as he sat down in the chair beside her. She gave him a warm smile as she opened her notebook, then pulled out her phone to reveal the rice purity test on her screen. “We need to figure out everything that I’ve done that you haven’t so we can figure out where to start.”

“Well that’s just about everything, Rey,” he protested, then he smirked at her, and she glanced up at him curiously. 

“What?”

“Everything except for kissing.” He glanced down at the table, suddenly finding himself remarkably interested in the tiny little tear in the corner of her notebook paper. 

She was snickering quietly beside him, and he turned his gaze back onto Rey as she began to write exactly what he said onto the paper, grinning cheekily. “Everything but kissing. So I can assume you’ve drank since we’re friends with Poe.”

“Yes.”

“But you’ve never gotten any degree of sexy with anyone?”

“Never. Except for you two and a half hours ago.”

“Ben, if you think that was sexy…” her voice trailed off and suddenly all of the blood in Ben’s body rushed to one particular spot. She took in a deep breath, as if she had been just as affected by the implication of her words as he’d been. “Can you show me your results again?”

He gave her a nod, then he obliged her request, handing his phone over to Rey as she opened his safari app. She seemed delighted to realize the test was still open on his phone, and quickly set about writing down everything he’d done. “I still can’t believe we’re doing this,” Ben muttered. 

“Neither can I. This is the most ridiculous, possibly idiotic thing we’ve ever come up with,” she told him, then she handed him his phone back as she looked at the test on her own phone, and split the paper before her into two sections. One she labeled, “shit  _ Ben _ has done,” and the other she called, “shit _ I  _ have done.” He snorted quietly at the names, and she glanced over at him with a hint of a glare in her eyes. 

After a moment, Rey cleared her throat, and pointed to the paper, “So there are twenty five ish things that I’ve done that you haven’t. Since Poe’s score is a twenty six, we’ll need to do at least fifty two things on this list to match him, and fifty three to beat him. I’m figuring we start slow.”

“Agreed,” he breathed with a sigh of relief, though a part of him would’ve been perfectly willing to go with whatever she asked. 

Another giggle left Rey’s lips. “We’ve already knocked out three of these, and given this location we can knock out at least four more by the day’s end if you’re okay with it.”

Ben’s brain short circuited, but he was more than okay with it. He gave her an eager nod, then he glanced at the test that was still pulled up on his phone. “Which ones are those, exactly?”

A blush slowly crept across her cheeks as she took in a deep breath. “Questions eight through eleven. Possibly twenty seven and twenty eight.”

This time it was Ben whose cheeks flushed red as he scrolled through the test, and found the questions she was referring to. If she was suggesting what he thought she was suggesting...“In public?” he asked.

She nodded, though he could tell even she was a bit nervous at the prospect, and as her eyes met his, she bit her thumb. “You can say no if you want to. We can call this whole thing off. I don’t care how far into it we get, Ben,” she reached out and took his hand. “If you have a problem with this at any point, please don’t hesitate to tell me no.”

Squeezing her hand, Ben nodded. “Same goes for you,” he said, then he leaned forward, and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead that she leaned into. When he pulled away, though, he could see her hooded eyes looking at him expectantly. He could practically hear his pulse as his heart picked up its pace in his chest, and he began to lean forward, closing his eyes as he prepared to meet her in the middle—

Rey held up a finger to his lips, causing him to open his eyes in shock while she laughed at him. “Not here,” she replied, then she stood up, and offered him her hand. “Leave your stuff, we’re about to make you an official university student.”

He didn’t hesitate to take her hand, but an expression of his confusion must’ve made itself known on his face, since she laughed at him as he stood. “What does that mean, Rey?”

“You know what they say, you’re not a student here until you’ve made out between the bookshelves,” she said, winking at him as she led him out of their group study room. 

“I’m pretty sure you just made that up.”

“Oh, you’d be absolutely right. But people still do it.”

Giggles left both of them helplessly as they ran past various students to find the nearest—preferably dark, preferably somewhat isolated—bookshelf. Rey tugged on his hand as they ran like idiots through the library, earning them some stern looks from the library’s workers, but she didn’t seem to notice as she continued dragging him down the hall. Some people yelled at them as they rushed past, nearly knocking their fellow classmates over as they hurried to a bookshelf near the back end of the library just by the emergency staircase. 

Only when they were a few feet away did Rey begin to slow down her pace to a fast walk, then she tugged Ben around the shelf, and pressed him up against it with her body. His back met the shelf with a bit of force, knocking his breath from his lungs as he stared down at his best friend, who was now flush against him as she pinned him to the bookshelf in the dimly lit section of the library. Both of them were panting as they recovered from the running they’d just done, and Rey smiled up at him warmly as one of her hands reached up to run her fingers through his hair. 

“Last chance to back out,” she reminded him, her hand finding the base of his skull, encouraging him to lean down just a little, to start closing the distance between them. Ben’s breath hitched as her other hand began to slide its way up his abdomen, his shirt lifting slightly as Rey’s palm slid up to rest on his chest. Another soft rush of air escaped her, and her expression sobered. “Your heart’s beating really fast.”

He laughed nervously, his eyes flicking to either end of the bookshelf to make sure they weren’t being watched, then he looked back at her, and nodded. “Yeah, it is,” he said, then he slowly brought his arms up, and wrapped them around her waist, pulling her even more tightly against him so that their faces were a hair’s breadth apart. This time it was her breathing that caught in her throat, and something about the sound of her gasping against him drove him wild, and the small thread of tension that had been building between them snapped as Ben leaned down, and crossed that last bit of distance.

Like their first kiss, the initial coming together of their lips was soft, tentative, and asked the question of whether or not both parties were invested in it. Unlike that kiss, however, neither one of them pulled away, and instead, Ben deepened the kiss. He let go of the grip he had on her waist with one hand to reach up and cup her jaw, angling her face toward him so he could reach her better. She responded in kind, a soft moan escaping her as she slipped her tongue back into his mouth, and tightened the grip she had in his hair. 

If Ben’s heart had been beating really fast before, now it was in complete overdrive, and possibly racing beyond the point of being healthy. What had happened on his futon had been brief and fleeting even if it was the most intense thing he’d experienced up until that point. What was happening now in the library was slow, soft, languid, and while he knew she was only just a friend and this was all for a bet—it almost seemed  _ loving _ . 

After a while, Ben felt his lungs burning again, and he forced his head back against the shelf—grimacing slightly at the pain— as he took a gulp of air, and heard Rey doing much the same. They stood there for a few seconds, just staring at one another as they panted hard, then Rey smirked slightly at him, and pulled him back down to her again to kiss him thoroughly. 

Despite the constant risk of being walked in on or interrupted, they took their time against that bookshelf, exploring what they both liked as they kissed for a length of time that defeated Ben’s ability to comprehend without some sort of clock. Rey’s lips felt electric against his, and each kiss was like touching a livewire that sparked in the open air. It was a feeling that Ben just wanted to lose himself in and never let go of. 

As they came up for air again, Ben leaned his head back against the library shelf, feeling slightly dizzy from the lack of oxygen and the flurry of emotions kissing her made him feel. His breathing shook as her hands drifted down from his hair so that they both rested on his shoulders, and he heard her panting slightly as she leaned in close to him again, and whispered into his ear, “Close your eyes.”

Ben quirked an eyebrow but did as he was told, and closed his eyes, allowing his ears to fill in all the sensory details for him. He heard her shift her stance as she drew closer to him, felt her body heat as she closed the space between him, but instead of meeting his mouth, she pressed a kiss to the soft line of his jaw. His skin felt like it was on fire where she kissed him, then the burning intensified when she did it again, this time further down the line of his jaw. He quickly caught on to what she was trying to do, and he tilted his head back to allow her better access as Rey trailed kisses down onto his neck. 

Before that day, Ben had never even been kissed on the cheek. So when she began to kiss him there, where he had no idea he’d be so sensitive, it took nearly all of his restraint not to moan obscenely loudly in the very, very quiet library. His hand cupped the back of her head gently, stroking her hair to keep himself grounded and encourage her as she traveled further and further down his neck until she reached the tops of his shoulders, just beyond where his v neck kept him covered. She stopped there, and just as he started to allow his eyes to flutter open, she pressed one of her palms firmly into his chest, forcing him against the bookshelf more. 

“Keep them closed,” she told him, then she took the hand she had on his chest, and let her fingers crawl up to the edge of his shirt. Ben forgot how to breathe for a moment as she gently pulled the fabric aside, just a few inches, but still the action pushed a thought into his head. Was she going to undress him in the middle of the library? If memory served, having sex in public was indeed on the test, but he hadn’t thought—

Just as his thoughts were taking a turn for the sexual, Rey pressed a kiss to the skin she’d exposed, and before he could even think to ask her what she was doing, she began to suck a mark into his shoulder. Ben gasped at the sensation, his hand tightening its grip in her hair just as she’d done to him moments earlier during that initial kiss. 

After several heart palpitation causing seconds, she released her grip on Ben’s skin with a soft popping sound. “You can open your eyes,” she said, then wiped away the wetness she’d left behind there as she admired her work for a moment. A soft little snicker left her as she shifted his shirt back in place and looked up at him with a smirk on her face as she leaned down, and pressed a kiss over the clothed mark. 

“Why’d you put it there?” he asked, dumbfounded in part by the kiss and his own innocence. 

“So Poe wouldn’t see. You know that if Poe saw he’d ask you about it, and no offense, Ben, but you can’t lie for shit.”

He laughed at himself, then he gave her a nod. “That’s fair,” he replied, then his eyes dropped down from hers, and the corners of his mouth twitched upwards. 

“What?”

Suddenly he wasn’t sure if he had the confidence to follow through with the thought that had just popped into his head. They’d only just gotten started, and it wasn’t really that bold of a request, but something about it intimidated him nonetheless. He knew he had to say something before he lost his nerve, and he took in a deep breath before he spoke next. “I was just going to ask if I could return the favor.” 

He felt her shudder in front of him. “Ben,” she breathed, her eyes darting between his before she gave him an enthusiastic nod. “Just don’t leave it somewhere obvious.”

_ Oh, he could certainly do that _ . Ben grinned at her, then he grabbed her by the waist again, and swung them around so that she was now the one pressed up against the shelf. He heard her gasp into his ear as they settled into this new position, and he once again found his grip in her hair as he pulled her in for another searing kiss. 

Rey moaned against him, the sound just a hint too loud for the attempt they were making to keep quiet and not draw attention to themselves, but it was as Ben suspected. No one was going to bother them in this corner, and if anyone did happen to come back there, they’d quickly turn the other way. Of that much he was certain as he continued to kiss her like they wouldn’t see tomorrow. 

He let a few more seconds pass before breaking the kiss, but unlike her he didn’t hesitate to start trailing kisses down to her neck. They were both still panting hard as he made his way down the golden expanse of her sun-kissed skin, and found his own place just beneath the collar of her shirt, shifting fabric aside to expose her shoulder. Calling to memory what she’d done to him just moments ago, Ben kissed her there, then he took the skin into his mouth, and left a mark on her to rival the one she’d left on him.

Another soft little whimper left Rey’s throat, and just as he was letting go of the skin on Rey’s shoulder, she grabbed hold of his hair, and pulled his ear to her mouth. “Touch me,” she told him, a husky tone to her voice as she spoke, then she seemed to take a step back from her confident order, and she cleared her throat. “If you want to, that is.”

Ben swallowed nervously as he pulled back from her, and grimaced as he realized that he was now growing hard from the way she’d asked him to touch her. Of course he wanted to, but would he be able to survive such a thing without spontaneously combusting? “What do you want me to do?” he asked, his voice trembling slightly as he gave her whole body a quick once over, noticing for the first time just how snug her t-shirt was against her chest. 

Nothing was said in response. Instead, Rey took one of his hands in hers, and he could feel her shaking slightly as she guided his hand to her chest, letting his palm gently cup her breast. Another wave of dizziness passed over him as he looked down at where he was touching her now, and he felt another rush of adrenaline coursing through his veins as he looked back into her eyes and watched her nod before he brought his lips back to hers again. 

For a second or two, Ben was completely and utterly internally panicked on what to do with the hand on her chest, but then Rey’s wandering fingers covered his, and guided him to show him exactly what she liked. Her fingers guided his through a series of soft, gentle strokes, and after a moment even through the shirt and whatever bra she was undoubtedly wearing, he could feel her nipple hardening, a feeling he could certainly relate to, though from a far different place. 

After a while, Rey’s hand left his to its own devices, and he didn’t hesitate to move his hand to her other breast, not wanting to neglect a single part of her as they set about exploring one another properly for the first time. A delighted laugh escaped her when they took a brief break for air as he began his work, then she wrapped her arms around his waist, and pulled him much more tightly against her as she kissed him again. He moaned involuntarily at the contact, his hips pressing hers back into the shelf as he sought friction, some sort of relief from all the tension she’d been slowly building up within him. 

A soft moan left Rey as she undoubtedly felt his erection pressing up against her, and she pulled back from the kiss, breathing hard as she looked him in the eyes. “Ben, there’s only so much we can get away with in a library,” she said, the sentence leaving her in a rush. 

This time he groaned in response, and captured her lips in another brief kiss. “This bet is going to be the death of me.”

“Yeah, me too,” she replied, then a mischievous smile took over as her fingers began to comb through the waves of his hair absentmindedly. “But we can keep doing this for a while if you’re not too busy.”

A smirk crossed Ben’s face as he kissed her again, and moved his hands down to pull her hips flush against his as he lost himself to the feeling of her lips on his. Every single piece of kissing her sent a new spike of adrenaline rushing through his system. Everything from her hands tugging at his hair, to the way her tongue explored his mouth, and how she ground against him just enough to drive him absolutely insane sent him reeling. A part of him was convinced that this entire day had just been some vivid dream that his brain had concocted as a part of his latent feelings for her, but the way she was holding him against her couldn’t possibly be conjured by his brain. 

He was so lost in the kiss, he’d started to forget where he was. For all Ben knew, he could’ve been anywhere. The only certainty he had was that Rey was pressed up against the bookshelf in front of him, and the pull he felt to her was magnetic. 

An extremely unfortunate reminder of where they were came about thirty seconds later, when both of them failed to hear the tell tale sign of high heeled shoes approaching them, and a throat suddenly cleared at their side. Ben jumped slightly as he pulled away from Rey, turning his head just enough to see the pink-haired librarian—he thought vaguely that her name started with an H— leering at them from behind black rimmed reading glasses. “Interesting reading?” she asked, glancing between them with a neutral, but stern expression. 

Ben blinked a few times, unsure of what to say, when suddenly he heard it in the form of Poe’s sarcastic voice in his head. “Yeah, I’ve been learning a lot,” he said, trying not to grin when he saw Rey’s jaw drop out of the corner of his eye. 

“Hmm,” the librarian hummed, then she cocked her head to the side. “Either start actually using these books, or get out of here. You both know the rules,” she said, and while her voice was stern there was the barest hint of a smile threatening to break on her face as she walked away, the clicking of her heels sounding her retreat. As she walked away, he looked back at Rey, and the two of them stood there just staring for a moment before a soft, choked up laughter began to escape them both. 

Ben pulled away from her as he openly chortled, the noise likely audible throughout the entire second floor of the library. He stepped back and leaned against the wall as he tried his hardest to collect himself, though a look across the small aisle at Rey revealed that she was trying to do much the same against their bookshelf. 

“Oh my god…” Rey breathed, pressing her fingers to her kiss swollen lips as she stared at him, her face bright red in the aftermath of being caught by the librarian. “I can’t believe we didn’t hear her coming.”

Ben shook his head. “I can, we were a bit distracted.”

Rey continued to giggle, then she reached out her hand, and waited for him to take it. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s get out of here before she comes back.” His eyebrows shot up toward his hairline as he contemplated the meaning of her words, and she snorted as he took her hand. “I only meant we should leave the library, Ben, it’s getting late, and we’ve got all semester to do this.”

Though he was slightly disappointed, Ben gave her a warm smile, and let her lead him back to the group study room to gather their things. The walk back to the study room was much less rushed than the one away from it, though he already felt like he was walking down memory lane just by being there. When they finally walked back into their little study room, everything was exactly as they’d left it, including the list that Rey had begun to write down, left out in the open for anyone peering into their room to see. His cheeks flushed at the thought of someone seeing that list, but he quickly pushed it down as they walked into the room, and began to gather their stuff. 

“Hey, Ben?” she asked after a few seconds of shoving things into her bag.

“Yeah?”

“Are you sure you’ve never done any of that before?”

“Yeah, why?”

She grinned at him. “You’re just suspiciously good at it, that’s all.”

Ben laughed quietly under his breath, then as Rey put the last of her things in her bag, he sighed. “So what’s next?” he asked. 

“We’ll have to see,” she replied, then she winked at him as she slung her back pack over her shoulder, and they began to walk back out into the main part of the library, his eyes scanning the aisles for any sign of the pink-haired librarian who had caught them—Holdo, that’s what her name was. “You know, I think we’ll have to meet here again, we’ve still got a lot to discuss.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, we need to talk about who we can and can’t tell about the plan—Poe’s a given _ no _ — and when we want to reveal our new scores…”

Ben scratched the back of his head. “I might have already told Finn?”

She stopped walking for a moment, then she shrugged. “Yeah, I’ll probably tell my roommate, too,” she said, picking up her pace again, then she grinned. “Just think of how satisfying it will be when Poe finds out that not only is he more pure than us, but his boyfriend knew all along, too.”

Ben chuckled, then he crossed his arms over his chest. “But why are you telling Rose about this?”

“To warn her for when she inevitably walks in on us,” Rey replied casually, and the implications of  _ that _ sentence nearly gave Ben a heart attack as they walked out of the library together. 

By the time they got back to their dorm building, it was nearly dark. The sun had just set beneath the horizon, but the light had not completely faded from the sky yet as they walked back into the lobby, and a few seconds later they boarded an elevator together. Ben held his breath as he realized that they were the only two people in it this time, and as the doors closed, he kept Rey in his peripheral vision, just seeing what she would do now that they were alone again. 

A few seconds into the ride, Rey reached over and took his hand in hers as they passed the second floor. He turned to look at her as they arrived on the third, and just as they were passing the fourth, Rey tugged on his hand, pulling him toward her to capture his lips in one final, explosive open-mouthed kiss for the night. 

Knowing they only had seconds, he didn’t pull her too tightly against him, but his hand came up to caress his cheek as he kissed her intensely and yet tenderly all the same. Rey’s arms wrapped around his shoulders just as the elevator dinged to announce their arrival on the fifth floor, but neither one of them let go of the other until the doors actually began to open. Only then did they finally come apart, both of them immediately searching the hallways for signs of Poe or anyone else who might’ve caught them. 

Luckily there was no one there, and the two of them walked out of the elevator and turned to face each other. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, then?” Ben asked, searching her eyes for the answer. 

She nodded. “Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow,” she replied, adjusting her backpack on her shoulder. “Tonight was…”

“Awesome.”

Another tiny giggle. “Yeah, you weren’t half bad for a first timer.”

“Technically second,” he replied, then Rey lightly shoved his shoulder. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Ben,” she said, then she leaned forward, and pressed a light kiss to his cheek before walking down the hallway toward her dorm. “Remember to keep that mark covered!”

His entire face flushed red as he watched her walk away, and he scratched the back of his neck as he too turned and walked back down the hall toward his dorm. His hands shook slightly as he put the key into the lock, and opened the door. 

When he walked back into his dorm, he’d intended to slump back against the door and just sit there for a while until someone either came in, or Poe decided to bother him about it. Instead he was instantly greeted to the sound of quiet, soft moans and he knew he’d walked in at the wrong time as he looked up to Poe’s bed to see him—mercifully fully clothed—lying on top of Finn—also fully clothed—as the two engaged in a series of slow, lazy kisses. Neither of them seemed to notice Ben as he walked further into the room, and it wasn’t until he flopped himself back down onto the futon—which creaked very loudly as he sat down on it— that they finally broke apart with startled gasps. 

“Hi guys,” Ben said, attempting to keep his voice casual despite the awkwardness of the situation. It wasn’t exactly the first time he’d seen Poe in such a compromising position after all. 

“Ben!” Finn squeaked. “Where’ve you uh… where’ve you been?”

He was almost certain his face was red again. “Uh… the library, with Rey… we were… studying…”

Poe looked at him suspiciously. “You don’t seem sure about that, Ben,” he said as he rolled off of Finn, and stood up off the bed. 

“No, no, I’m sure, I just… I wasn’t expecting to walk in on you guys,” Ben said, avoiding Poe’s eyes in what he hoped passed for innocent awkwardness instead of an attempt to hide his lie. 

His friend still frowned for a moment as he looked down at him, then he smiled broadly. “God, you’re so innocent. It’s cute, Ben, really,” he said, then he jumped back up on Finn’s bed as Ben laughed nervously. “We May have to start calling you Saint Solo.”

  
“Maybe,” Ben replied, then he laid back on the futon as relief flooded him at having gotten away with his lie. He’d barely managed to lie about kissing Rey. If he couldn’t keep it up, the bet was going to be over faster than either he or Rey wanted it to be. One thing became quickly clear to Ben; it was going to be a  _ long  _ semester. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should mention that when Rey said, "I'll see you later, Ben," I originally accidentally typed, "I'll do you later, Ben." Freudian slip, I guess.


	3. Sixty Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah I know I just updated yesterday, but I'm high key feeling this fic and I'm about to go into a hell week of tests, so who knows how often I'll update. Better now than never. Again, if you haven't already, leave me your rice purity test score and just remember. There's no score too low or too high. It's to each their own, my dudes. Bonus points to whoever catches the fallout boy reference.

The next day, Ben sat restlessly in his calculus one class, drumming his fingers on the lecture hall’s frigid table in an attempt to try and distract himself from the nonstop thoughts about meeting Rey in the library later. Logically, he knew that she wouldn’t try to kiss him again like that in that same spot any time soon, but that kiss had made its way into his dreams. 

In his sleep, when Rey had told him there was only so much they could do in the library, he’d smirked at her, and leaned down to whisper, “I know,” in her ear before they promptly sank to the floor. His hands on her body had felt so real, her gasps, her moans as he thrust into her had felt like it was actually happening. He even felt the harsh friction of the library carpet against his palms as his hands clenched into fists, and he came calling out her name—

God damn it he was in public, he needed to stop thinking about that dream, but he could already feel himself growing hard again. Clearing his throat, he shifted his chair so he was hidden more by the table, and attempted to listen to the professor as he talked about infinite limits. 

By the time he was finally released from his class, Ben all but sprinted to the library, perhaps a little too eager for whatever he and Rey were going to do next as he ran into the elevator. This time, though he was careful to be sure that he closed the doors before anyone else could get on. A stupidly large grin spread on his face as he watched the floor number go up on the digital screen displaying where he was, but he quickly schooled his expression by the time he reached the fourth floor. 

As he predicted, Rey was waiting for him in their group study room, bent over a textbook with her hands in her hair, looking for all the world like she was having the worst day of her life. Any thoughts of kissing or more sexual things were immediately pushed aside, and Ben rushed into the room now full of concern. “Are you okay?”

She jumped as the door opened, clutching her chest from fright as Ben quickly uttered an apology, and grabbed the seat next to her, then her hand as he sat down in it. “Rey? What’s going on? Talk to me.”

All she did in response was groan, and lean her head on his shoulder. “Ben… I can’t stand chemistry. This shit is too hard.”

Ben hummed sympathetically as he squeezed her hand, then he glanced over at her homework, taking in the problems with his own eyes. If he were being perfectly honest with himself, he wasn’t half bad at the subject, having managed to pass the AP chemistry exam in high school—thus exempting himself from having to take the class in college— and while it was far from his favorite subject, he suspected he’d be able to help her just a little bit with her work. The bet could wait. After all, they had all semester. 

“Here, let me take a look at it,” he said, then he gestured for her to remove herself from his shoulder, and he peered down at her homework curiously. 

“Ben, are you serious?” 

“Rey, how long have we been helping each other with our homework?”

She blushed, and ran a hand through her hair. “I don’t know,” she said, shrugging as she added, “Since second grade?” 

“Exactly. If I was willing to help you with multiplication tables then, I’m willing to help you with atomic bonding now.” He beamed at her, then he took the pencil out of her hands, and set to work explaining everything about the subject of beginner’s chemistry to her. Well, everything he could about this particular chapter of her textbook at least. 

Rey listened to him intently, hanging off of his every word as she watched his hands move across the paper and he drew out diagrams and descriptions. Eventually, she took the pencil back from him, clicking the point seven lead out of the tip as she began to write down the solutions to her problems. Ben propped his elbow on the desk, and his head in his hand as he watched her work, her brows furrowed in concentration as she worked through her first problem. 

For a moment, she looked frustrated, but before he could ask her what was wrong, she showed him her solution, asking him to look over it. Ben sat up then, and rolled up the sleeves of his Alderaan High School hoodie as he looked over the problem. Her solution was spot on, but he still gripped his chin like he was thinking hard about it. 

“What? How did I do? Is it right?” Rey asked him anxiously. “Please tell me it’s right.”

He couldn’t resist teasing her a little bit. “Gosh, Rey, I don’t know… I mean, the work’s nice, but…” 

“But?”

A broad grin erupted on his face. “Everything in the solution is exactly right, and you did a good job,” he said, then he burst into laughter as the rage began to form on her face, and she picked up the textbook from the desk—not an easy task, that thing was at least six hundred pages and looked remarkably heavy—before she began to lightly beat him with it. Ben’s laughter was obscenely loud, likely carrying out of the study room and into the rest of the floor. He had no doubt that the librarian—Holdo—would come in there in about a minute and order them to quiet down, but for now, he was going to enjoy this. 

“God!”  **_SMACK!_ ** “Damn!”  **_SMACK!_ ** “It!”  **_SMACK!_ ** “Ben Solo!” she shouted as she continued her assault on his arm with the textbook while he absolutely howled with laughter. By the time she finished, he was laughing so hard his abdominal muscles were aching, and each giggle brought him a healthy dose of pain as a tear leaked from his eyes. “I hate you so much,” Rey was saying as he came down from his high, and wiped the droplet from his cheeks. 

“Love you, too,” Ben said sarcastically as Rey continued shaking her head at him, and while she was trying to look angry he could tell she was fighting back a smile as her gaze turned back to her homework. 

“Shut up,” she told him, then she reached over, and grabbed his hand. “Now help me with the rest of them so we can get out of here.”

“Get out of here or…  _ get out of here?” _

She winked at him. “What do you think?”

Ben didn’t hesitate to start helping her with her homework again immediately, and this time, he made sure to tell her outright whether or not she’d gotten it wrong. As she worked through the problems, he pulled out his phone from his pocket, and sent a text to Finn asking him if he could make sure he and Poe stayed out of their dorm for a little while, a small twinge of satisfaction filling him as he realized that he had knocked another point off of the test by kicking his roommate out for… whatever the hell he and Rey would be doing that afternoon. 

Finn’s reply came moments later in the form of a laughing emoji followed by a, “Sure,” that was followed by a winking emoji as Rey finished up the last of her problems. She announced she was done seconds later, and closed the textbook with a dramatic slam that had him laughing despite his still aching sides. 

“You’re such an asshole, Ben,” she breathed, but she was smiling as she gathered her papers and her textbook, and placed them where they belonged in her backpack. Once she zipped it shut, she stood up, and walked around the table to open the door as he stared after her. She only stopped moving once the door was swung wide open, and she looked back at him. “Are you coming?”

He quickly stood up, and gathered his own backpack before following her out of the study room. “Yeah, sorry,” he muttered, then as she began to giggle at him, he added, “I, uh… I told Finn to clear the room for a while so we could um… whatever we’re doing.”

Rey shushed him as they walked past a group of people who could’ve possibly heard what Ben said. She gave them an awkward wave in response to their concerned glances, though whether their concern was for her shushing or for what Ben had suggested, he couldn’t tell as they continued walking in the opposite direction. “You’re so innocent, Ben,” she murmured, then she smiled up at him, and his heart raced in his chest again. 

It was perfectly platonic to enjoy someone’s smile, wasn’t it?

“I’m not that innocent anymore,” he grumbled, but she only laughed harder, which earned them shushes from other people as they walked past the quiet study tables. 

Rey winced beside him, then she stayed quiet until they reached the elevator, and the doors slowly began to close shut. “Only someone as saintly as you would say that,” she told him, then he smirked at her. “What?”

“I’m not  _ that _ much more innocent than you are now, Rey,” he reminded her. “And that’s also your fault.”

She smacked him in the chest, but both of them giggled as she moved away, and the elevator landed on the first floor of the library. Glancing up at him out of the corner of her eye, Rey then grabbed hold of his hand, and dragged him out of the building. “Let’s get out of here,” she said with a coy smile on her face as they began to power walk back to the freshman dorms. 

He felt a little shock that her enthusiasm matched his, but he quickly picked up his pace and ran with her, his heart pounding again in his chest as Rey led him into their building’s lobby. A small crowd had gathered around the elevators, and Ben’s eyes rolled back in his head as he realized that getting up to his dorm was about to take them five years. Especially since he was fairly certain that most of these people lived on the second floor and were just too fucking lazy to take the stairs— _ the stairs. _

Ben tugged on Rey’s hand. “Come on, I have an idea.”

A look of confusion crossed her face, but she followed him nonetheless as he led her to the other side of the lobby toward the stairwell. As they came upon the door, realization dawned on Rey, then he pulled the stairway door open, and motioned for her to go inside ahead of him. “After you,” he insisted, and she shook her head with a laugh as she walked inside the stairwell ahead of him, and began to run up the stairs. “Wait up!”

“Not my fault you’re slow!” she cried, not slowing down her pace as she ran ahead of him, seeming to forget that he had much longer legs, and was thus able to skip steps and catch up to her in seconds. “No fair!”

“Race you to the top!” he cried, bounding ahead of her at breakneck speed while she screamed at him about his longer legs. Though Ben’s abdominal muscles still ached from earlier when she’d beaten him with her textbook, he couldn’t help the round of laughter that escaped him this time as he burst out of the stairwell and onto the fifth floor. 

It was then that she caught up with him, and Rey was on his heels as they sped toward his dorm. He reached into his pocket to find his keys, which slowed him down just enough for Rey to run ahead of him, crashing into his door just before he could reach it with a victorious shout. “I won!”

Ben scoffed as he gently nudged her aside to put the key into the lock. “No you didn’t, I said race you to the top, and I clearly reached the top first.”

Rey stuck her tongue out at him, the sight of it sending his thoughts directly back to what they’d come here for as he unlocked the dorm, and the two of them walked into a mercifully Finn and Poe free living space. A sigh of relief left him as he realized that his text had actually worked, and he and Rey were now truly alone. He tried not to think about it too hard as he made straight for the futon, and set his backpack on the ground before he laid himself down on it, patting the space beside him to indicate where he wanted her. 

She repeated his action of setting down her things, then she laid down on the futon beside him, and he didn’t hesitate to scoop her into his arms. A sigh left him as Rey’s warmth settled into his skin, aided by the warm light of the setting sun through his window that shone on them both while he began to trace circles into the small of her back. “You’re driving me crazy, you know that, right?”

“Am I? I hadn’t noticed,” she replied as her hand came up to rest on his chest. “Your heart’s still beating ridiculously fast, Ben.”

He turned his face into the futon out of embarrassment. “Poe’s right, I am Saint Solo,” he grumbled half sarcastically. 

She laughed softly beside him, but she quickly reached up, and gently brushed a piece of his hair behind his ears. “That’s not a bad thing, Ben, it’s okay that you’ve never done any of this. It’d be okay if you  _ never _ did any of this.”

Turning his gaze back on her, Ben nodded. “Yeah, I know, I just really want to knock Dameron’s ego down a peg.”  _ And possibly kiss you again but we don’t have to talk about that. _

Rey grinned as she moved a little closer to him, and he was fairly certain his heart started beating faster as she pressed the front of her body flush against his. One of her knees poked between his thighs, and soon enough even their legs were sandwiched between one another, spreading even more warmth and electricity up and down the length of Ben’s entire body as they lay there in the light of the fading sun. Their smiles slowly faded as they drew closer to one another, and Ben couldn’t help but notice that Rey looked absolutely stunning in the pink and orange light. 

Did he dare to tell her that? Did that cross the line they’d wordlessly set between them? This was purely platonic. They were friends with benefits now, he reminded himself, so of course they would lie together intimately and makeout in the library like they were sixteen and full of hormones. But telling one another little compliments, sweet nothings, and mutterings of affection… That seemed like it would go beyond what he could consider platonic. 

“What are you staring at?” Rey asked him after several seconds had gone by, and he hadn’t said a word or moved closer to her. 

Ben wasn’t sure how to respond to that. Instead of saying anything, he reached up with his right hand, and cupped her jaw before pulling her lips to his. She quickly melted into the kiss, humming contentedly as she returned it, and tightened the grip she had on his back ever so slightly. 

This kiss was different from the others, their lips parting and coming together much more slowly. It was more gentle than their previous, passion driven kisses that sent his heart racing and set his soul on fire. No, this was almost sleepy, relaxed, and much more comfortable than being pressed up against the bookshelf—as insanely hot as he thought that had been.

Still it grew a bit more intense as one of Rey’s hands slid down from his hair, gliding over his back with the barest of touches before it came to a stop much more firmly on his ass. Rey broke the kiss first, and he looked at her from beneath hooded eyes as she looked up at him warmly, and ran her fingers through his hair again—something he was quickly learning she loved doing— as she exhaled deeply. “Are you okay with me doing this?”

“Rey, I’m okay with you doing anything,” he answered her, perhaps a bit too quickly and definitely more honestly than he’d meant to. 

She giggled at him as she kissed him again, and the hand over his right cheek squeezed, causing him to moan as he kissed her. Rey laughed into the kiss, and Ben was mentally rolling his eyes until she began to use the grip she had on him to guide him on top of her while she rolled onto her back. He froze suddenly from his shock at their new position, and broke the kiss to look down at her as he realized he had no idea what to do next. 

Concern washed over Rey’s face, then she reached up with both hands to cup the base of his skull as she pulled his forehead down to hers. “Ben, it’s okay,” she promised him. “Do you need to back out?”

He shook his head, feeling his anxiety reach the forefront of his mind as it truly hit him that he’d never done anything like this before. Kissing her in the library had been one thing, and dreaming about her had been another, but really doing this was something else entirely. Reality was intense, brutal, and had consequences. If he fucked up in reality he wasn’t sure how he’d move on from that. “I’m just nervous,” he admitted, then he noticed that he was shaking slightly as he held her in his arms, his whole body vibrating from where it rested half on top of hers. “Very nervous.”

They both giggled as he pointed out the obvious, then Rey pulled back from the forehead touch slightly, her head sinking further into the pillow he’d left on the futon. “Ben I didn’t come here planning to go all the way there with you yet, I know you’re not ready for that.”

A sigh of relief escaped him as he shifted against her. “Yeah, but I’d like to be. One day,” he said, looking her up and down. “One day I’ll stop being so scared, and I’ll get you out of these clothes.” His voice dropped a little lower as he spoke, and Rey shuddered beneath him, her eyes closing as she breathed heavily at the sound of his promise. 

“Christ, Ben, What porn are you watching?” she asked, and he simply grinned at her in response before he kissed her again. 

They found their rhythm once more within seconds, both of them easing into the kiss as the time went on, and the sun continued to set beneath the horizon. The light of the room slowly began to get darker as they kissed, and vaguely Ben remembered one of the points on the test being “kissed for two or more hours consecutively,” but he didn’t dwell on it for too long as he devoted his attention to Rey and the soft little moans she was making as their lips came together. 

As the time passed, the kisses slowly started to find their intensity again, and Ben’s tongue found its way into her mouth, eliciting a particularly loud moan from Rey as she held him tightly. He felt one of her legs slip out from under him slowly, and he lifted himself slightly to allow her to free the limb before she hooked it around his hip, and nudged his hips against hers. He nearly cried out when the action caused friction on the growing erection between his legs, and she snickered into the kiss like she knew exactly what she was doing to him. 

Two could play at this game. 

Ben began to leave kisses down the line of her jaw again, placing them along the side of her neck before he was forced to move her t-shirt aside to continue in his tracks. He wondered vaguely if the mark he’d left the day before was still there, but there was no chance he’d be able to see it in the gathering dark. Taking in a deep breath, he licked his lips before he kissed her just above where he’d left the last one, then he opened his mouth ever so slightly, and sucked. 

Before Rey could react to his actions on her shoulder, Ben fought a smirk as he thrust his hips against hers, both of them moaning at the friction it brought. The brief, sweet relief of grinding his cock against her brought a rush of ecstasy through his veins as he finished leaving his mark on her, quickly doing his best to cover it up with her t-shirt. He then moved back up to her mouth, and as his lips reunited with hers, he gently thrusted against her again, and she gasped into their kiss as her hands gripped his hair tightly in a non-verbal, but very enthusiastic  _ yes.  _

He continued to fight off the satisfied smirk that threatened to form on his face as he continued to grind against her, causing her to shiver and shake beneath him as one of his hands slowly found its way to the hem of her shirt. She deepened the kiss as his hand slipped under it, sliding up the smooth planes of her abdomen—he’d had no idea that Rey had  _ muscles  _ like that, all those years spending time with one another, and he’d somehow never noticed— as it made its way due north to the small peaks of her breasts. 

Ben’s breath hitched as he broke the kiss when his hand came in contact with the soft lace of her bra, and Rey’s hand came down to cup his cheek. “Are you alright?”

He nodded, though his grinding against her temporarily ceased as he turned his hand to tug at the fabric of her shirt. “This is just getting in the way,” he said cheekily, finally letting loose the smirk he’d been holding back for at least the last ten minutes. 

A scoff left Rey’s mouth, but she obliged his unspoken request. She let her hands fall from his hair down to his chest, pushing him back slightly with her palms, then she reached down for the hem of her shirt, and pulled it over her head. 

Suddenly, Ben found himself cursing the darkness that had settled outside, preventing him from seeing anything beyond the vague outline of the cups of her bra. But the near pitch black wouldn’t stop him from continuing what he’d started, and he bent down to kiss her again the moment he heard her shirt rumple on the floor. She put up a hand again to stop him, though, and even in the dark he could see the faint traces of a sinful grin. 

“I think you’re still overdressed,” she whispered, then she paused. “Unless you want to be.”

Ben laughed, then he leaned down to press a brief kiss to her lips before he pushed himself onto his knees above her, being careful not to hit the bottom of his lofted bed as he reached down and took off his shirt and hoodie as well. It soon joined hers in the small pile on the floor, then he crawled over her, and settled back into their position before he kissed her again properly. Her hands came up to settle on his chest, exploring the planes of the muscles he’d just exposed as their kiss deepened. 

He was quick to resume the grinding of his erection against her, and he broke the kiss to call out her name as she ground herself against him in return. Laughter escaped Rey’s lips, which he was quick to silence with his own as the friction in their jeans intensified. 

His hands began to explore her body again as they kissed, grunting against one another as the tension between them built to a very familiar place he’d only been able to achieve by the stroke of his own hand. He tried his best to ignore the orgasm he could already feel building within him, and instead focused his attention on the hand that was gliding up toward her left breast. 

Beneath his palm he could feel her heart beating as he felt her through the lace. He thought hers might’ve been beating about as fast as his was, and he briefly contemplated teasing her for it, but lost the urge to the desire to pleasure her instead. His thumb brushed over the peak of one hard nipple, and she hummed delightedly against him as his hand continued its work on her breast, the sound shooting straight to his cock as he continued thrusting gently against her. 

They gasped against each other for the next several minutes. Their kisses becoming increasingly sloppy and sometimes missing their mark entirely as they drew closer and closer to their climaxes. “Rey, I’m close,” he warned her, feeling his orgasm just out of reach. 

She gasped against him as he ground into her. “Me too.”

Soft little moans left his lips as he kissed her again, and after a few more seconds, she broke the kiss, swearing loudly as she came from his movements. Ben continued to thrust against her as she whimpered beneath him, beginning to press kisses on her neck again as she rode out her orgasm, and brought her focus on bringing him to his. 

He could barely even stop to consider the fact that he’d be finishing into his boxers and jeans as they continued moving against one another, and Rey laughed breathlessly as she reached up to tug at his hair again, opening up His ear to her mouth as she whispered, “Come for me, Ben.” And who was he to deny her what she wanted?

Ben clutched her tightly as he came with her name on his lips. The electricity bursting in his veins had him feeling as if he were on fire, alive in a way he’d never been able to feel by his own hand. Rey ground against him even harder, and as his eyes squeezed shut he thought he saw stars as his spend met the unfortunate cotton barrier of his boxers—which he was still trying actively not to think about—and he started to think that maybe, just maybe he might like her as more than a friend if she was capable of making him feel like  _ that.  _ She stroked his hair as she continued to guide him through it, whispering encouragements into his ear as he came down from his high, and slowly collapsed into a puddle on top of her. 

For the next several seconds, minutes, maybe hours, Ben laid there gently on top of Rey, both of them panting hard as they processed what had just happened. A silence washed over them in the aftermath of their shared climax, and as Rey’s hands continued to stroke his hair, he sighed as he leaned his head into her shoulder, still breathing harder than normal. It felt like ages before he finally rolled off of her, and resumed their earlier position by taking her body into his arms. Only this time she was facing away from him, and he could feel the swell of her ass pressing against the damp spot on the front of his jeans—which he knew he needed to change out of soon— as her back was pulled flush against his bare chest. 

She hummed softly as his hand came up to rest over her chest, once again feeling the smooth—now slightly damp from sweat—lace of her bra beneath his palm as he slid it up to rest over her heart. They stayed like that for a moment, with Ben feeling Rey’s heartbeat slowing down beneath his palm as she relaxed into his touch. He felt himself doing much the same as he held her close in his arms, and with the combined efforts of the quiet hum of his air conditioning unit and his own post orgasm bliss, the perfect, pleasant sort of lull was created that had him wanting to just fall asleep then and there. 

He leaned forward, and buried his face in her hair, inhaling the scent of sweat and her fruity shampoo as she reached up, and covered his hand with hers, their fingers lacing together over his chest. The action made him wonder if most friends in their situation held each other after doing such things. When they finally took off their clothes and completely surrendered to one another, would he hold her then? Would she hold him back?

“Ben?” Rey asked hesitantly after a few minutes, interrupting his thoughts. 

“Yeah?”

“Are you  _ absolutely certain _ you’ve never done anything before?” Disbelief laced her voice, and Ben grinned at the realization that he’d been good enough for her to question his experience in such a way not once, but  _ twice.  _

He shrugged. “Some people are just naturally gifted, I guess.”

She fell quiet for another few seconds, then she turned, shifting her entire body on the futon to face him before she beat him lightly on the chest with her fists. “Oh, you complete arse!” she cried, though she was starting to laugh jubilantly as she spoke. 

Ben returned her laughter. “You really want to start that?”

Her fists paused in their assault against him, and even in the pitch black he could see the small grin that formed on her face as she gave him a nod. “You know what? I think I do.”

“Oh, you’re going down, Johnson.”

“Bring it, Solo,” she hissed playfully, then she grabbed him by the wrist, and started to wrestle him on the futon, twisting her hips so that he was forced on his back. Before he could think to move, Rey was climbing on top of him, gripping both of his wrists now, and pinning them above his head as she put her entire body weight into keeping him down. “I thought you were going to bring it.”

Chuckling loud enough he was certain his neighbors could hear him, Ben pushed against the grip she had on his wrists, forcing them both into a sitting position. “Oh I am,” he replied, yanking himself free of her grip before his hands found their grip in her hair. 

Rey cried out in delight just as he pulled her lips to his, and he found himself smirking into the kiss. Maybe she couldn’t see his smirk, but she could certainly feel it against her lips, and after a few seconds, she pulled away. He could faintly make out the outline of her head as she shook it, and pulled back from him. “That’s not fair, that’s playing dirty.”

Feeling a rush of confidence, Ben leaned forward, and whispered in her ear, “You didn’t mind me playing dirty a minute ago.”

“You absolute shit head, I hate you,” she replied. 

He kissed her again, briefly. “I know.” Then he brought his lips back to hers for another one of their deeper, more passionate and intense kisses. She melted into it instantly, her arms wrapping around his shoulders as she pulled him closer to her, the action creating friction on his cock again. Already he could feel himself growing hard again, and he hadn’t even bothered to take care of the stain he’d undoubtedly created from his last orgasm. If he came again…

Both fortunately and unfortunately at the same time, Ben was spared from having to worry about coming in his pants again. At that exact moment, the door began to unlock, and the two of them froze as they heard the key turn in the knob. They pulled apart as quickly as they physically could, and under her breath he could hear Rey swearing as she began to search the futon for her shirt, seemingly forgetting that she’d tossed it to the floor like he had. 

Thinking quickly as the door opened, Ben reached up with his long arm, and felt around the top of his mattress for the blanket he kept hanging around up there. He found it just as the door opened all the way, and light from the hallway flooded in. “Get inside!” he whispered to Rey, then he promptly covered them both with the blanket, leaving himself exposed down to the chest as he reached for his phone in the pocket of his jeans. 

He managed to assume the position of looking like he was casually scrolling through his phone just as whoever was walking into the dorm flipped the lights on, and he squinted into the blinding light as Finn’s voice began to yell at him. “Jesus, Ben, did you fall asleep? I’ve been texting you for fifteen minutes.”

Eyes finally adjusting to the light, Ben watched as Finn walked up to his bed and flopped his things down on the floor before he turned to face him. “What the hell are you doing without a shirt?” Finn asked, scratching his head as he took in the sight of his roommate shirtless beneath his blanket, his eyes slowly drifting down to the floor where his and Rey’s shirts had piled. They widened when he undoubtedly recognized the shirt Rey had been wearing that day, and he pointed between Ben and the pile asking a question without words. “Did you…?”

He could hear Rey snickering quietly beneath the blanket, and nudged her subtly with one of his knees. “No, no we didn’t,” he replied, then he looked around the room, and noticed that Finn was alone, and Poe hadn’t followed him into the dorm. “I’m guessing your boyfriend’s not around tonight?”

“You’d be guessing correctly,” Finn grumbled, flopping onto his bed dramatically. “He had to study.”

Ben nodded, and opened his mouth to respond just as Rey’s fingers began to tickle his abdomen. Instead of responding to Finn, he burst into laughter, and lifted the blanket to look down at her—he couldn’t help but notice she looked adorable with her now frizzy hair, not that he’d ever tell her that— with a sigh. “Would you stop that?” he asked, throwing the blanket back so that Rey, too was now visible.

“Sorry, it was hard to breathe under there, and I got the impression Poe wasn’t around,” she replied, then she sat up slightly, clutching the blanket to her chest as she made eye contact with her newly shell shocked roommate. “Hi, Finn,” she said sheepishly. 

Finn blinked at them a few times, staring between them blankly as he put his head in his hands. “Holy shit, a part of me thought you guys were joking.”

“Finn, as long as you’ve known me—”

“I’ve only known you for about a month and a half.”

“But as long as you’ve known me, haven’t I always been extraordinarily petty?” Ben asked, then he reached down from the futon with a groan, grabbing his hoodie off of the ground, but not the t-shirt. He waited patiently for his roommate to respond as he threw it on, then reached down to grab Rey’s shirt for her, and she quietly thanked him before she too covered herself up again. 

“Yeah… Yeah I guess so,” Finn replied. “But still, it’s one thing for you to be petty, and another for me to find you in bed—”

“In futon,” Rey corrected as she adjusted the hem of her shirt, causing Ben to snort his laughter. 

“ _ Whatever _ ,” Finn continued, then he sat up, and swung his legs over the side of the bed. “I’m just saying, I still wasn’t prepared. Maybe I would’ve been if you would’ve answered my texts warning you that I was coming back home,  _ Ben _ .”

Frowning, Ben looked back at the screen of the phone he’d neglected in his hands, and when he pressed the power button, he winced when he realized he did indeed have seven different texts from Finn—and one from Phasma—about his homecoming. “Shit, dude, I’m so sorry,” he said. 

Finn grinned at him. “It’s fine, I’m not as squeamish about this stuff as Poe would have you believe.”

“Well, I’d imagine being Poe’s boyfriend, you’d have to not be squeamish,” Ben said, then he sat up, and was again reminded of the drying spot in his boxers, and the still damp stain on the front of his jeans. “Shit.”

“What is it?” Finn asked, and Ben’s eyes went wide as he realized he didn’t know how to answer him. Rey’s soft little giggles on the futon beside him certainly weren’t helping. 

Ben groaned as he leaned back against the futon once more. “I need to change... and possibly shower,” he muttered, then he looked back at Rey, who was still laughing like a hyena as her hand covered her mouth. “You probably do, too.”

Rey shrugged, then she sighed. “You’re right, I haven’t showered since yesterday.” She reached down for the hem of her shirt, and brought it to her nose, sniffing quickly before she added, “And now my clothes smell like  _ you _ .”

He tried not to let it get to his head that she knew what he smelled like. Before he could think too hard on it, Rey got up off the futon, crawling over him until she was standing again, and he mourned the loss of her warmth beside him. Another groan left him as he closed his eyes, willing himself to pretend she was still there as Rey gathered her things from the floor. “I didn’t say you had to leave.”

“I know, but I probably should. We’ve already knocked down enough points and I really do need to change,” she replied as she began to lift her backpack onto her shoulder. 

A frown crossed Ben’s face as his eyes opened wide, but Finn somehow managed to beat him to saying anything. “Well, you could always change and come back.” 

Ben could’ve kissed Finn. “Yeah,” he replied, feeling his heart beat faster in his chest as he spoke again. “I think spending the night with someone is also on the test…”

She looked between the two men for a moment, then she smirked at Ben. “I’ll see you in twenty, then, don’t forget to clean yourself up,” she said with a wink, then she reached down, and unzipped the outer compartment of her backpack as his jaw fell slack. He then watched as she grabbed her keys, and walked back over to the futon, and knelt down to give him the world’s shortest—but still heart attack inducing— kiss on the lips goodbye. 

As he watched her go, he began to feel his cock hardening again as he stared at her until she walked out the door. Even when she was gone, his gaze was still lingering on the dorm’s entrance as if she’d sweep back into the room, and they’d—

Finn cleared his throat, alerting Ben back to attention as a startled shout left his throat. “Didn’t you say you had to shower?” Finn asked, quirking a mischievous eyebrow at him. 

Ben groaned, but he gave his friend a nod, and slowly rolled off of the futon as Rey had done moments earlier. “This bet is going to kill me.”

“If you play your cards right, this bet will kill  _ Poe _ ,” Finn reminded him, and Ben gave him a grin as he walked toward their bathroom. 

Ben walked into the bathroom, and flicked on the lights to see his reflection instantly shown to him in the mirror across from the door. He blinked at his reflection a few times. The jacket he’d put on was unzipped, allowing him an unrestricted view of his shirtless chest, where he could still see the purple and red mark she’d left on him yesterday. Tentatively, he reached a hand up to touch it, not sure exactly what he’d been expecting, but his skin was still smooth beneath his fingertips. 

Still, having Rey’s mark left on him sent his brain reeling, which wasn’t helped by the sight of his severely rumpled hair—no thanks to her hands. He looked like he’d seen the wrong side of a hurricane thanks to Rey’s hands, though something about it was oddly satisfying to look at just knowing it had been done by her. 

He froze as he shrugged the hoodie off of his shoulders, letting it pool on the ground below him as he continued to stare at the mirror. Were his thoughts based on the satisfaction and excitement of experiencing all these things for the first time, or were they being brought about by his latent feelings for her? He had an odd suspicion that it was a weird mix of both. 

Shaking his head, Ben turned, and opened up the shower door. If Rey was going to be spending the night with him, he was going to be  _ ready. _

 


	4. Fifty Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This got so long so fast. Anyway, I'll probably not be able to post anything for the next couple of days because I have TESTS coming up and IM NOT HAPPY ABOUT IT. Wish me luck I'm gonna die.

The time between Rey’s leaving and returning to his dorm was undoubtedly the longest half hour of his life. He’d taken the fastest shower anyone had ever taken in the history of Earth, and wrapped a towel around his waist as he rushed out of the bathroom with his dirty clothes in his hands. Finn was snorting his laughter as he watched Ben throw his old clothes into his hamper—with the exception of his hoodie, which he figured hadn’t sustained any damage—and pull out new ones from the dresser next to the foot of his bed. 

“In a hurry?” Finn asked half sarcastically, then he laughed harder when Ben rolled his eyes at him. “God, Ben, you’re really invested in this bet, huh?”

He froze. Did Finn somehow know what was going on with him internally? Had he managed to raise everyone else’s flags to the fact that he was most certainly developing a genuine crush on Rey? “Uh… Yeah, yes I am.”

Another round of laughter left his roommate, still not making things any clearer to Ben on whether or not Finn had figured it out. He certainly hoped not, though he still avoided his gaze as he walked into the bathroom to change into the pair of sweats and his hoodie. 

Once he was changed, he looked into the mirror again, watching himself take several anxiety riddled breaths before he forced himself to calm down, and walk back out of the bathroom. He walked back out into the dorm to find Finn up on his feet with his backpack once again on his shoulders as he prepared to walk out of the dorm. 

“Where are you heading?” Ben asked curiously, wondering why Finn was leaving the room. 

Finn shot him another grin. “Poe said he was done studying and he wanted me to come over. Figured I couldn’t say no, and besides…” He looked down toward Ben’s futon. “This way you don’t have to put a sock on the door.”

Ben’s face turned beet red as Finn walked past him, yelling something at him that sounded like it ran along the vein of “have a good night,” but he was too embarrassed to hear it. He waited patiently for the door to close, then he groaned loudly, and flopped himself onto the futon just as he got the text from Rey that she was almost ready. His heart was doing barrel rolls in his chest as he saw the winking face emoji that succeeded her text, and as he leaned his head back against the pillow, he realized anew she was going to be the death of him.

Rey walked back into his dorm five minutes later—apparently Finn had left the door unlocked for her— to find Ben lying down casually on his futon, wrapped up in the blanket he’d used to cover them earlier as he stared anxiously at his phone. Well, more specifically, he was staring at the text from her that announced that she was on her way. She grinned at him as she walked into the dorm, then she glanced over at Finn’s bed, frowning when she noticed it was empty. “Where’s Finn?” 

“He gave us the room for the night,” Ben explained as she walked over to the futon, and laid down beside him on it. “Well, he actually just went to Poe’s, probably to—”

“Get laid?” Rey finished for him, and as he met her eyes, they both giggled softly, and Rey folded her hands over her stomach with a sigh. “Oh, I can’t believe he still has no idea we’ve done this. What even is your score now? How much progress have we made?”

Ben shrugged, then he turned on his phone again, and typed in the test’s web address into google. “Let’s find out,” he replied, and this time when he took the rice purity test, he didn’t awkwardly cry out his shock at how scandalous the content was. Most of it failed to even phase him this time, which he found amazing, considering he’d only taken it for the first time about thirty six hours earlier. 

The questions flew by this time, unlike when he’d first taken it and managed to slow down the test taking time to a whopping twenty minutes, but though it was only yesterday he’d become a changed man since then. He was very proud of that.

Within five minutes, he’d reached the bottom of the test, and he looked at Rey with a smirk on his face as his thumb hovered over the “show me my results,” button. She smacked his chest with the palm of her hand. “Just hit the button already, stop making me wait,” she grumbled, and he snickered quietly under his breath as he finally hit the button, and his new score popped up in big, red font. 

Sixty five. His breath left him in a rush. In just a day and a half he’d managed to knock down sixteen points from the test, and he began to wonder if they’d even need until the end of the month to finish their work. At this rate, they’d be done by the end of the week. 

“Oh my god, Ben,” Rey breathed, staring at him in disbelief even though she’d been the one to help him achieve such a score. He couldn’t exactly do most of those things alone. She stretched her arms, as she let out a yawn, and slung one over his waist in the process. “We’ve already made so much progress.”

“You getting tired?” 

“Yeah, a bit. It’s getting late,” she replied, and when he checked the time he winced when he realized it was half past twelve and they both had early classes in the morning. “We should get some sleep. Mind turning off the lights?”

He scoffed. “You’re closer to the switch,” he almost whined. 

“Yeah, but it’s your dorm, and I’m your guest.” She poked her pointer finger harshly into his sternum to emphasize each of the last three words of that sentence, and smiled up at him sweetly as she pressed a kiss into his shoulder. “Please?”

_ Fuck _ , he absolutely could not refuse her when she looked at him like that, her hazel eyes pleading and mischievous at the same time as they stared into his like she could read his thoughts and see exactly what he wanted. Ben reached up a hand to caress her cheek, and suddenly Rey’s confident smile froze, and softened into something else he couldn’t read. “If it’s what you want,” he told her, then he leaned forward, and pressed a kiss to her forehead before he sat up, and got off the bed to obey her command. 

He could feel her eyes on him the entire time he walked to the light switch at the front of the room, and even as the room went pitch black, he could sense her still watching him. It felt like electricity was running through his nerves as he walked back to the futon, finding her through the dim light of the streetlamps that streamed in through the window. His throat went dry as he crawled over her, settling in next to her as he grabbed the blanket from his side, and threw it over them both before he opened up his arms to her. 

“Come here,” he said softly, and not even a second later, Rey shifted so that she was now resting comfortably in his embrace. Ben sighed as her warmth spread throughout his entire body, his eyes closing at the sense of contentment that washed over him. The anxiety that had filled him a moment earlier was completely forgotten as he wrapped his arms around her, one of his hands tracing circles in the ridges of her spine as they laid there on his futon together. 

“This is actually pretty nice,” Rey murmured after a minute, and Ben smiled as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You’re like a giant space heater.”

He let out a snort as he pulled away from her, and though it was dark, he looked where he thought her eyes were. “Um… thank you?” he said, slightly amused by her wording. 

She giggled softly, melting further into him as she slung an arm around his waist, pulling him closer to her. “I just mean I’m enjoying this. It’s been awhile since I’ve done this with anyone. It’s nice.”

A soft hum left Ben as he leaned forward, and pressed his forehead against hers. “I’m enjoying this, too,” he admitted, though the admission left him a little shaky, as if he’d accidentally said the wrong thing or said too much. In front of him, he could hear Rey’s breath shudder as it left her lungs, and for a moment they sat in silence before either of them spoke again. 

“We need to slow down, don’t we?” Rey asked after a moment, and Ben’s brows furrowed in confusion. 

“Hmm?”

“The bet. We’ve been moving pretty fast, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, we have,” Ben replied, knowing full well that as much as he’d been enjoying all they’d been doing, there was certainly a lot he still had yet to mentally or emotionally prepare himself for. That was what they’d set the limit for the bet on, after all. That was why it wasn’t the week they’d be perfectly capable of completing it in, and was instead the length of the full semester. To give them both time. “And Rey, we’re going to be in uncharted territory pretty soon. Both of us, I just… It’s not going to be just me you’ll have to worry about anymore. I don’t want to do anything that’ll make you uncomfortable either.”

She reached up her hand to cup his jaw. “Ben, I promise you, there’s very little I’m uncomfortable with. You’re my best friend, I love you, and I trust you, and we can do this.”

He’d heard those words from her a thousand times before, but hearing them now created a fluttering knot in his stomach that made him feel as if he were exploding emotionally, like he was on fire with joy and a little bit of fear. “I trust you, too,” he told her. “And I promise you that I’ll be okay no matter what we do.”

There was a pause, then he felt Rey shift forward, then the gentle press of her lips against his in a chaste, closed-mouthed kiss. “Good night, Ben.”

“Night, Rey,” he replied, then he tightened his hold on her ever so slightly, and closed his eyes. 

Sleep came easily to Ben that night for the first time in ages. For the past month and a half since he’d moved into the dorm, he’d struggled to be able to sleep in the small space. Perhaps it was the anxiety of being away from home for so long for the first time, or maybe the fact that while he and Finn had hit it off immediately and become fast friends, his roommate was still a stranger and it felt weird to share a living space with him. He had no idea what it was. All he knew was that within minutes of getting onto the futon with Rey, he was completely out. 

Ben woke up to the sound of his alarm blaring in his ears, and immediately shut it off, not wanting to leave the warmth of the futon as the light of day slowly began to flood his window. A soft groan left the lips of the girl sleeping beside him, and he opened his eyes to see the back of Rey’s head in his face, the sight bringing a smile to his own as he realized he’d woken up with her in his bed—well, in his futon, but still the point stood— and it felt good to have her pressed up against him. 

“I don’t want to get up,” Rey grumbled, lacing her fingers through his where they were draped loosely over her right breast, the action forcing his fingertips to brush against her through her shirt. He blushed what he imagined to be a rather deep shade of crimson as he realized she wasn’t wearing a bra underneath, and the only thing that stood between him and her bare chest was the thin cotton of her t-shirt. 

She’d been right the night before. He still wasn’t quite ready for a lot of shit yet. 

“Neither do I,” he answered her, sighing into the back of her neck as he pressed his forehead to the back of her skull. “But we’ve gotta get up. You’ve got to turn in that chemistry homework.”

“Don’t remind me, it’s too early.”

He laughed softly. “Sorry.”

Another groan left Rey’s lips. “Ugh, okay, it’s half past seven, so I need to leave immediately if I have any hope of eating before class,” she said, shifting in the futon so she was facing him. “Motivate me to get up.”

Ben thought of something immediately, but he put on a good act for her, pretending to think hard on it for a moment, before he leaned forward, and whispered in her ear. “We can repeat yesterday after you get back from class if you leave on time. Or you can stay here and we can repeat it anyway.”

She shivered against him, and he knew for a fact that it wasn’t from the cold. “Ben,” she breathed, and he began to wonder if this bet was killing her as much as it was killing him. 

After a moment, he shook his head, but leaned forward to capture her lips in a short kiss before he grinned at her. “I’m serious, you should get to class. I’d hate to have been beaten by a textbook for nothing.” 

Rey smacked his arm again at the mention of the textbook and their teasing from the day before, but she then shook her head as she sat up off of the futon, and stretched her arms before she stood up off of it. “I’d best be going, then,” she said, and he couldn’t help but to hear the disappointment in her voice. He was feeling much the same at the prospect of her leaving.

“You better come back later, though.”

She winked at him. “Oh, you bet I will,” she replied, then she grabbed her backpack off the floor, and slid her arms through the straps, letting it rest comfortably on her shoulders before she walked back to the futon. Ben stared up at her expectantly as she leaned down, and brought her lips to his in a searing kiss goodbye, her lips moving in tandem with his for several heart racing seconds before she broke the kiss suddenly, and laughed obscenely at him as she sauntered out the door with her fist in the air. 

Ben was going to die, and she was going to kill him.

After that, things slowed down a little. Ben and Rey frequently kissed still, and the events of the second day of the bet were repeated frequently as they entered the second week of it, but they didn’t cross off anymore of the points on the list as they took time to catch their breath before they wandered into potentially unchartered territory. 

Poe somehow never suspected a damn thing the entire time. Every time he was in the dorm, even when he saw Ben and Rey cuddle in front of his own two eyes, his only comment was, “Huh, Ben, now you have an eighty.” And Ben had simply laughed nervously, thinking that his friend had absolutely no idea that his score was in reality a sixty four. 

Finn and Rose had been phenomenal at keeping their secret. When they’d had to move to Rey’s room during one of their spur of the moment, mid-day hookups, her roommate had been a saint of a woman, and given them the room. They were going to probably have to pay for their roommates’ therapy sessions when this was all over, if they were being honest. 

Still despite the underlying anxiety of it all, it was the most exciting time of Ben’s life. Every day suddenly had the potential for something incredible to happen by its end, and even if nothing of particular interest did happen, he would always find his lips meeting Rey’s at some point, which was starting to become a thrill in and of itself. She was slowly becoming a constant in his life, more than she’d usually been through the last sixteen years since they’d first met. 

They’d known each other on the playground, they’d been playmates in a sandbox and a kiddie pool, survived middle school and high school at each other’s sides. Through it all, Ben hadn’t ever looked at her as more than a friend, but there had certainly been jokes thrown in their direction by a multitude of people—mostly his parents. Han and Leia has always been pestering him about when he would ask Rey out, and they’d practically jumped with joy earlier that year when the two of them had announced they’d be going to prom together. Their joy had quickly been subdued when they learned it was just platonic, but in light of the changes between them, had it truly been?

That first kiss had awakened something in him, and he supposed that it had been there a while, that it had always been there, but now it was awake. He hadn’t been the same since Rey took his face in her hands in his futon and just planted one on him when he wasn’t expecting it. He wondered vaguely if he’d ever be the same again. Well, he certainly hoped not. 

After a few days, Ben felt himself starting to loosen up the more time he spent with Rey, like he was finally ready to take another step forward with the bet. It wasn’t until a week had passed since their shared climax on his futon that he finally said something out loud about it, only it wasn’t to Rey, it was Phasma, with whom he was sharing lunch in the courtyard between the classrooms. 

At first, he’d been hesitant to say anything to Phasma, but after a few seconds of deliberation, Ben caved, and decided that she could be roped in on the secret. After all, she was so nonchalant about her phenomenally low score on the test, so how bad could telling her about his new one be? He waited until they were both about midway through their lunches, then he cleared his throat. “Um, Phas?”

“Yeah?”

“I need to ask you something, and it might be kind of awkward.”

She dropped her fork in her salad bowl, and laughed at him as she threw her head back, dappled sunlight reflecting blindingly off of her light hair. “Ben, everything’s awkward for you,” she reminded him. “You’re Saint Solo.”

A wince crossed his features. “You heard about that?”

“I’m friends with Poe, aren’t I?”

“Fair enough.”

“So what’s got you, then?” she asked, crossing her arms and leaning against a table. “What couldn’t you ask Dameron? Or Finn?”

_ Here goes.  _ He took in a deep breath, and looked around them to make sure no one was listening to their conversation before speaking. “I need to ask you about what kind of condoms to use.”

Phasma coughed, choking on a piece of food she accidentally inhaled as she registered his words. Ben was torn between horror and laughter as she clutched her chest, and pounded a fist against her sternum to cease the coughing as she looked up at him in confusion. “ _ What? _ ”

He quickly shushed her. “Keep it down, Phas, I can’t have everyone hearing this.”

“What the fuck, Ben?”

Taking in another deep breath, Ben leaned forward over the table. “I need to explain something first,” he said, then he told her everything about the bet and the agreement he’d come to with Rey. Phasma sat there listening intently to her credit, even though she looked completely stunned throughout, a far cry from the unphased woman who’d nonchalantly displayed a thirteen a week earlier. She blinked at him disbelieving when he told her about what they’d been doing in his futon or her bed, her jaw dropping slightly as she realized that Saint Solo was no longer a reality. 

By the end of it though, Phasma was smirking knowingly. “Oh, I can’t wait to see the look on Dameron’s face when this is all over, it’ll ruin me.”

Ben grinned. “So can you help me, then? With the condom thing?”

A smirk was thrown at him from the other side of the table, then Phasma began to gather her things into a trash pile, and stood up, dumping them in a nearby rubbish bin. She then turned to Ben, and held out her hand. “Come with me, Solo.”

He quickly gathered his things into a trash pile of his own as well, and looked up at her expectantly as he stood to throw his away as well. Once his food remnants were in the trash, Phasma held out her hand for him, and grinned broadly. “Come on, I can’t wait to see your face when you do this.”

Ben looked at her worriedly, but took her hand, and let Phasma lead him through the courtyard back toward the dorm building. Upon closer inspection though, he could tell she wasn’t leading them into their dorms, but rather toward the parking deck where both their cars resided until they chose to drive home on whatever weekend they chose. Or into town… oh no. 

She patted him on the shoulder as she led him to his own car, a small, black four door thing that was at least ten years old and still had a CD player for him to play music on. As a result, Ben actually still had a CD collection in the year 2018 like he was some sort of hipster. No, he just couldn’t afford a better car. “Why are we taking  _ my  _ car?”

She shrugged at him. “Cause you’re the one who needs to get something,” she replied as he pulled out his keys and unlocked the car. They both put their backpacks in the trunk, then Phasma was sitting in the passenger seat before he could even open his door. He shook his head while fighting back giggles as he slid into the driver’s side beside her, and started the car. 

The drive to the nearest drugstore was a short one, but by its end Ben was flushing beet red as he realized just what he was about to do. Yes, he was becoming increasingly ready to take those next steps with Rey, but going out in public and facing a cashier as his virgin hands slid them a pack of condoms? Fear coursed through his veins at the thought as they stepped out of his car. 

Behind him, Phasma once again patted his shoulder as they walked away from his self-proclaimed shit-mobile. “Come on, big guy, you can do this. I’m helping you, remember?” 

“I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?”

“Quite possibly,” Phasma said, then the automatic doors made way for them, and they were inside. It was too late to back out now. 

The fluorescent lights flickered above their heads as a pop song from five years ago drifted through the speakers, sounding faint in the background of the store’s other various small noises. The cashier at the front of the store gave them his borderline scripted welcome, and they both nodded their heads at him as they made their way towards the aisles. Ben swallowed nervously as Phasma walked ahead of him in a path he suspected she knew well, and then suddenly she came to a halt, and he knew it was time. 

Before him were a variety of black and red—occasionally purple and blue—boxes of condoms, lining the shelves to the point that they were completely full. Ben ran his hand through his hair, and looked at Phasma expectantly. “Now what?”

“Oh dear god, I have to walk you through all of this, don’t I?” He blinked at her sheepishly in response, and she rolled her eyes before looking him up and down. 

“What are you doing?”

She said nothing, instead she grabbed a box of Trojans and handed it to him, watching his eyes widen as he read the size label on the corner. “Phasma what the fuck?”

This time she simply shrugged. “You know what they say about tall men. You’re nearly six foot four, Ben. You’ve got to have  _ something _ between those legs. Not that I want to think about it.”

Ben looked at the label again, then back at Phasma, and spared a quick downward glance at his groin before coming to the decision that despite having never seen him naked, she was right. He clutched the box tighter in his hands, and began to walk away while she howled with laughter. “Shut up.”

Unfortunately for him, Phasma only clapped her hands louder as Ben walked up to the register, and the cashier behind it looked at them with confusion in his eyes until he saw the condom box in his hands. He promptly rolled his eyes after that.  _ Same, buddy, _ Ben thought as he put the box down on the counter, and the cashier rang it up. 

“You guys find everything okay?” the cashier asked as he put the condom box in a bag. 

“Yeah,” Ben replied, though his voice came out as more of a squeak while he fished his wallet out of his pocket. The sound caused Phasma to snort behind him, and he barely fought back a grin as the cashier told him his total, and he handed him a ten dollar bill. He leaned back, and whispered to his friend, “I’ll kill you later.”

She only snickered harder, and by the time they left the store with the condom box safely tucked away in Ben’s jacket pocket, she was openly chortling. “Oh, fucking hell, Ben, I haven’t laughed that hard in ages, thank you.”

“I’m glad my embarrassment amuses you.”

“Oh, it’s very, very funny, but now I have to ask…” she trailed off, then waited until they were sitting in his car before she finished her sentence. “Are you actually…?” She gestured to her own groin area, and Ben slapped his forehead with his palm. 

“I’m so not answering that question,” he replied, though there was a grin on his face as he started his car, and backed them out of the parking space before driving them out onto the road back to campus. Phasma kept trying to ask him to spill the beans the entire way back, both of them laughing stupidly as they drove through the hills to the parking deck beneath the dorms while Ben refused to answer her. 

Eventually, she gave up trying to ask him, but it wasn’t until they’d parked the car and were walking back out toward the main part of campus that boasted the classrooms. Ben transferred the condom box from his jacket to his backpack on the way, making sure no one was looking as he slid it into the biggest section, and zipped up the bag quickly. 

Ben slid into his english class with two minutes to spare, and a red blush on his cheeks as he felt the box of condoms burning a hole in his backpack. As he sat down in his desk, he flinched—nearly screaming as Poe’s voice greeted him warmly from the seat beside him. He’d nearly forgotten that they shared this class together in the insanity that had been his day thus far.

“You usually get to class much earlier, Ben, I’m surprised,” Poe said, grinning at his friend as he clutched his chest from fright. “You okay, buddy?”

Ben felt like the words “I just bought condoms so I can fuck our mutual best friend,” were written on his face, and he cleared his throat as he forced himself to reply that he was fine. “I’m great, just… had to take care of some things before class.”

Poe’s face grew serious. “It’s not something bad, is it?”

“No, no, just some shit I had to deal with. I swear, I’m fine,” he replied, realizing that he was making it sound like he was actually having to deal with some deep shit rather than hide condoms awkwardly like he was in high school and trying to hide them from his parents rather than Poe. 

Still, it looked like that excuse was sitting just fine with his friend, who simply patted him on the shoulder, and left him well enough alone for the remainder of class. But throughout that hour, Ben felt like he was on edge, like somehow his backpack had become see through and Poe would look down and notice it at any moment. The feeling was only intensified when halfway through the class, his phone buzzed with a text from Rey, one he was fairly certain knocked another point off of the rice purity test. 

She’d sent him a picture of herself lying on his futon with her arm slung over her eyes to block out light…. And nothing on her torso except for the rather sheer bra that he suspected did little to support the small weight on her chest. The caption beneath the picture definitely crossed off yet another point, as its suggestive message implied what she wanted him to do to her when he got back to his dorm. He could barely even spend too much time wondering how she got into the room in the first place before Poe was leaning over to look at his phone. 

He quickly slammed the screen down on the desk loudly enough for at least five people around him to turn their heads in concern. Taking a deep breath, he waved them away, muttering that he was fine before he glanced over at Poe, who was looking at him suspiciously. “Whatcha got there, Ben?” he whispered quietly. 

Thinking fast, Ben hung his head in shame—not entirely false shame either— “Uh, I just got my test grades back from my calculus exam. They uh… weren’t great…”

Poe definitely didn’t believe him, but he didn’t press him on it. He simply gave Ben a sympathetic shoulder pat before he went back to paying attention to their professor’s boring, endless lecture on ethos, pathos, and logos. 

Ben let another minute go by before he looked back at the text on his phone, then he made sure Poe wasn’t looking before he typed out his equally explicit response to her text. His face was fully red when he returned his phone to his desk, and he let out a deep breath as he tried desperately not to think about the growing erection between his legs. Screw surviving the end of the week or semester, he wasn’t going to make it through the hour.

When the class got dismissed, Ben muttered a quick, “See you later,” to Poe before he bolted from the room, undoubtedly making his friend suspicious, but he had better places to be. He was starting to grow a little too used to sprinting across campus and taking the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator thanks to this bet. By the time he got up to his dorm, he was no longer out of breath from his run, but he still took a second to smooth down his hair—he had no doubt it had been rumpled severely in his mad rush to get back home— before he walked into the room to find Rey lying on his futon as promised… but her shirt was unfortunately on. 

“Hi,” he said, hoping his voice was smooth and level as he walked in and set his things down on the floor beside the futon before crawling onto it beside her. 

“Hi,” she returned, then she giggled as his hand began to fiddle with the hem of her shirt.

“I thought you weren’t going to be wearing this when I got here.”

“Finn walked in earlier. It had to go back on,” she explained, then she reached up and began to tangle her fingers in his hair. “Sorry.”

If he were being perfectly honest, he did not give a fuck. He thought she looked just as good with a shirt as she did without, which was definitely not something he was supposed to think about a friend, but he didn’t care. “No, don’t worry, it doesn’t actually matter,” he told her, sighing contentedly as her fingernails grazed him. 

She grinned, then her expression softened, and she almost looked embarrassed. “Um, that brings me to what I asked you about in my text… Uh…”

“Yeah?”

Nervously, Rey sat up, and brushed a piece of her own hair behind her ear. “Ben… Um… how would you feel if I…” Her face flushed, and she failed to meet his eyes. “If I... went down on you?”

“What?”

“You know, if I…?” She gestured vaguely with her hand.

“I… I’m afraid I don’t follow.”

“Oh dear, sweet,  _ Christ, _ you’re still so innocent, Ben, I’m asking you if I can suck your fucking cock.”

Ben’s heart nearly stopped in his chest. “Are… You,.. You want to… What?” He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. When he’d started that day, he’d known he was ready to take things a step further in their bet, but to hear her suggest something like this… “Are you sure?”

She nodded. “Only if you want me to,” she replied, then she bit her lip as she looked at him expectantly, and he thought he might die a slow, painful death at the sight. 

“I want you to,” he told her, then she relaxed against him, and laid down beside him on the futon once more, a smile crossing her face as she wrapped an arm around his waist. 

“Good,” she replied, then her lips were on his, and Ben’s soul combusted. The daylight streaming in through the window was warm, adding to the dizzy feeling that always accompanied kissing her, which was only enhanced by the prospect of what this was leading to. Rey’s hands slowly began to drift down the expanse of his chest as if she were reading his thoughts, he tried to focus all of his energy into kissing her, distracting himself from his nerves with the feeling of every brush of his lips against hers as her fingers found the button of his jeans. 

He gasped into the kiss as Rey slipped the button through the hole, then her fingers brushed over his still clothed erection as she moved down to his zipper. “Do you need me to stop?”

Shaking his head, he answered her in a rush. “No, god no. Don’t stop,” he replied, then he resumed their kiss, and she quickly melted back into him as she undid his zipper. Ben moaned into the kiss as she began to palm him through his boxers, undoubtedly feeling how hard he already was because of her— _ for her. _

“Bit eager, aren’t you?” she asked as she pulled away from the kiss briefly to grin at him while her fingers moved upward for the hem of his shirt. “Mind taking this off?”

Heart racing like he was the Flash in his chest, Ben gave her a nod, and sat up briefly to remove his jacket and shirt, throwing them down onto the ground next to the futon before he flopped back down onto it beside Rey. She gave him a mischievous smile, then before he could even blink she swung a leg over his, sitting up so that she was now straddling him as she leaned down over him to kiss him again. He returned her kiss with the same amount of fire as she was giving him, both of them humming contentedly as he slipped his tongue into her mouth, tangling passionately with hers. 

The kiss was all too brief before Rey began to trail her kisses down his jaw and onto his neck, causing him to see stars as he leaned his head back and closed his eyes. His breath hitched as she latched onto a point near his collarbone and left a mark—one he knew he’d have to work to cover up later—on her way down. She smirked at him when she was finished, continuing her descent down his abdominal muscles until she reached the line of his boxers, then she paused, quirking an eyebrow at him one last time to ask him if he was absolutely sure. 

He gave her a nod, then she finally pulled his clothing down, freeing his erection from its cotton confines. Watching her blink a few times as she took in his length did something to his pride, and he felt it swell within him as a smirk rose to his face. A vague part of him recalled Phasma’s comments from earlier about how he was tall, and therefore had to have something between his legs, and Rey was currently discovering that the blonde had very much been correct. 

She looked between his eyes and his cock for a few seconds, then she rested her palm on his thigh. “Ben, how the fuck have you never had sex?”

The grin developing on his face only grew wider, and he reached down a hand to cup her cheek. “Because apparently I’m Saint Solo,” he answered her, then she laughed at him as she reached up, and took his cock into her hand, giving it a few experimental strokes that left him shaking beneath her hands. 

“Indeed,” she replied, gliding her thumb over the tip as Ben moaned as his head once again fell back against the futon. He wasn’t going to last another minute if she kept doing that. 

“Christ, Rey,” he breathed, and he heard her chuckle just a split second before he felt the wetness of her tongue gliding up the length of him, and he choked on his next breath. He swore much more loudly though when she finally went down on him, and at last he tilted his head back up, and watched her as she slowly took his cock into her mouth, knowing he’d want to savor the memory of every second she spent with her mouth wrapped around him, taking him slowly inch by inch. She never quite took him to his base, but he was more than fine with what she  _ did  _ manage.

Ben’s hands laced themselves through their hair as she began to move up and down the length of him, her tongue swirling around the tip each time she pulled back in a way that drove him insane as pressure began to build up inside of him. He still wasn’t close, but he knew that when he was around her, it didn’t take him long to get there. He’d learned that multiple times over the last few days. 

Her name left his lips breathlessly as her hand began to come up, stroking the length of him that her mouth couldn’t reach as she continued to suck his cock like he was her oxygen. One of Ben’s hands came up to support his head as he watched her, hypnotized by the way she moved on top of him. He nearly came when she locked eyes with him before winking at him as she moved even faster, and after another minute he found that he was very, very close. 

“Rey, I’m gonna— _ fuck— _ I’m gonna come,” he warned her, and she hummed her understanding around his cock before slowing down her motions slightly. “You’re going to kill me.”

She released him from her mouth with a moan, but continued to stroke the length of him as she spoke. “I want to enjoy this,” she told him. “It’s not dark this time, I want to see the look on your face when you come. I’m not missing it again.”

“ _ Fuck. _ ” 

Another grin spread wide on her face before she leaned back down over him, keeping her eyes trained on his face as she took him back into her mouth. “Are you sure you want me to come in your—“

“Mmmhmm…” she hummed, the vibrations shooting straight through every heightened nerve in his cock, nearly tipping him over the edge as she continued swirling her tongue around him. 

Ben’s breathing quickened as he finally reached his climax, and he swore loudly enough for the entire campus to hear him as he came into her mouth. He gasped for air as she continued her ministrations through his orgasm, not removing herself from his cock until he was finally able to stop seeing something that wasn’t stars and his breathing began to even. She released him with a knowing look in her eyes, and he thought he might grow hard again very quickly from the sight of her swallowing as she moved back over him, and kissed him again. 

Tasting himself on her mouth had him thinking he must’ve passed out and started dreaming. The salty tang on her tongue was something he thought he should’ve found weird, but for some reason despite being completely spent by her actions, he was turned on by it. The kiss made him feel sort of fuzzy all over, though that may have been helped by the breathlessness he was feeling in the aftermath of his orgasm. 

“Holy fucking shit,” he said as he broke the kiss, wrapping an arm around her waist to pull her flush against his side. “That was amazing.”

She chuckled lightly and reached up her hand to twirl her fingers in his hair. “Yeah, it was,” she replied. “I liked it.”

Ben breathed a sigh of relief as he began to lift his boxers back over his cock with his free hand. “I’m glad,” he replied, then he reached up to caress her cheek. “But now I want to ask you something.”

“Go for it.”

“When can I do that to you?” he asked, and Rey shuddered in his arms, her eyes closing as she leaned her head down into his shoulder at the mention of such an act. 

“Ben, that is the best possible thing you could have said to me,” she replied, then she pressed a kiss to his cheek. “And you can do that to me whenever you feel like you’re ready.”

Laughter escaped him as he leaned forward in a sudden burst of confidence, then he whispered words in her ear that made her shiver all over again. “I’m ready now."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the cliffhanger


	5. Fifty Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am... severely sleep deprived. I tried writing some of this last night, and it made absolutely no sense, it was absolutely incoherent and I'm fairly certain I was just starting to write down my thoughts as they popped into my head. That was definitely deleted, but still this chapter stems from severe sleep deprivation and your local author is a mess lmao. See y'all next chapter.

Ben’s heart was racing as he brought his lips back to Rey’s, his thoughts coming through his brain at a million miles an hour in the form of largely incoherent swears and the lord’s name in vain in various forms. Excitement rushed through his veins in the form of a massive adrenaline rush as he kissed her, his tongue slipping into her mouth, tasting the sweet traces of whatever she’d eaten before coming to his dorm. 

Despite what he’d heard about what he was about to do, he couldn’t wait to taste her everywhere else as well. His kisses grew more intense as he slowly rolled on top of her, taking care not to press his full body weight into her as they kissed like the world was ending. In a passing thought he mused that it might perhaps be a bit too passionate a description for people who were just friends and doing this out of spite, but his endorphin fueled brain couldn’t give less of a fuck. 

Her hands buried themselves in his thick hair, and he moaned into the kiss as she tugged slightly. After a few seconds, though, he pulled away, and laughed somewhat sheepishly. “I thought it was my turn to drive  _ you _ crazy.”

Rey shrugged. “I don’t know, I love your reactions to everything,” she replied, smoothing down the hair she had been roughing up. “It’s honestly quite adorable.” 

A blush crept up Ben’s cheeks, then he pressed his forehead against hers. “But I meant what I said, Rey,” he said softly. “I am ready.”

Her voice dropped lower, the sound shooting straight to Ben’s cock. “What are you waiting for, then?”

Giving her a mischievous grin, Ben leaned down to capture her lips with his again, then his thumb began to fiddle with the button of her jeans. Her hands slid down to grip his shoulders as he slipped the button through the hole, and moved on to the zipper as she’d done with him earlier. He pulled away from her to see what he was doing as his large fingers found their grip on her zipper, hearing her breath hitch as she watched him. With one, slightly rough tug, Ben pulled it down, exposing the hilarious clover leaf pattern of the underwear she was wearing. 

She turned beet red beneath him, but Ben was laughing too hard to notice as he brought his hand up to caress her cheek. “Please…” he said between giggles. “Please tell me it says ‘kiss me, I’m Irish’ on your ass.”

Rey practically guffawed, then she gave him a nod. “They do. Listen, don’t judge me I got them on sale for a dollar, Ben.” He only laughed harder, burying his face in her shoulder as she began to smack him on the back. “Stop laughing! This shit is expensive! They were a dollar, what was I supposed to do?”

Still laughing hard enough to feel tears starting to leak from his eyes, Ben pulled back from her, and slowly began to force himself to calm down. “Sorry, you’re…”  _ giggle,  _ “you’re right, that’s… a perfectly valid excuse to have ‘kiss me, I’m Irish,’ written on your ass.”

“Thank you,” she replied sarcastically, then she groaned. “Now can we get focused please, I think you owe me a favor.”

Ben gave her a wink. “Oh, I fully intend to return it, sweetheart.” He then resumed his work, returning his hand to the line of her jeans as he began to slide them over her hips. She worked with him, lifting herself slightly off of the futon in order for Ben to get her jeans past the swell of her ass down to her long, slender legs. His heart beat like a hammer against his sternum as the action fully exposed the green and grey boy shorts she was wearing underneath, and he forced himself to remain calm as he pulled back to allow her to kick her pants—and sneakers— off of her ankles and onto the floor with his shirt. 

“Oh god,” he breathed as he shifted over her again. “Now, I’m nervous.”

She smiled softly at him, sitting up to take his face into her hands. “Don’t be, just follow my lead,” she told him, kissing him gently before allowing him to lay her back down on the futon, and continue undressing her. “You’ll be okay, Ben.”

Blinking nervously at her one last time, Ben gave her a nod, then he sat back up, and let his hands drift down to the soft cotton of her boyshorts. His fingers gently wandered to the top of the fabric, tucking themselves under it gently before he began to tug it down over her hips. He could feel her eyes on him the entire time as he pulled them down her legs, and the moment they were gone his gaze rushed to the apex of her thighs, the sight of her bared beneath him sending another rush of adrenaline coursing through his veins. 

“Holy shit,” he whispered, and Rey laughed at him in response, covering her mouth with a hand as she giggled at Ben’s reaction to seeing her like this for the first time. She then sat up in front of him, barring her entrance from view as she reached up to cup his face. 

“Are you okay?”

He gave her a trite nod. “Yeah, I’m fine, I’m just…” unable to focus, possibly unable to breathe. “I’m just nervous.”

A soft chuckle left her as she tucked a piece of his hair behind his ear. “Don’t be,” she assured him. “With a mouth like that, I’d bet you’d be rather good at this actually.”

Ben knew he was blushing from his cheeks to his ears, the pink likely spreading all the way down to his abdominal muscles, but he didn’t care. Her compliment had boosted his ego just enough, giving him the confidence to surge forward until their lips were just a hair’s breadth apart, then he grinned. “Why don’t we find out?” he asked, then he heard her breath hitch as he pulled her into a searing kiss. 

Rey’s arms wrapped around his neck as she smiled into the kiss, then Ben wrapped an arm around her waist, and supported her as he lowered them both back down onto the futon. Without breaking the kiss, he crawled between her legs, settling his body weight gently on top of her as he’d done many times in the last week, only this time they were both wearing a lot less clothing. This time, both of them were half naked, and Ben was fairly certain he’d go into cardiac arrest if they undressed any further. 

As he kissed her, he desperately wracked his brain for some sign of what to do next. He recalled what she’d done when she’d gone down on him, her hands doing half of the work in synchrony with her mouth, and figured he’d probably have some luck doing something like that, but how? An idea popped into his head then, and as his lips caressed hers her slowly slid his hand down the smooth planes of her stomach, trailing it down to where he knew she wanted it the most if her soft little gasps were anything to go by. 

The first brush of his fingers against her entrance sent a rush of electricity throughout his entire body, but it was Rey who broke the kiss first as his thumb found her clit, and began to rub small circles into it causing her to gasp into him. “Christ,” she breathed. 

“I’m flattered, Rey, but call me Ben.”

“Fuck you,” she said with a laugh as he began to plant small little kisses down onto her neck. 

Ben smirked against her neck. “Maybe someday,” he promised her, then he closed his lips around the skin where he’d stopped, leaving a mark that she’d undoubtedly have to cover up with makeup, but she didn’t seem to care as one of his fingers slipped inside of her, and she gasped at the contact. 

He released her skin with a small pop, then proceeded to move downward, planting kisses along her body through her shirt as he slowly began to retreat backwards along the futon as much as the small space would allow him. Ben continued pumping his fingers in and out of her as he went down, curling them inside of her in what seemed to be the right way if her gasping moans were any indication. The sound of it sent his mind reeling as he finally found himself between her legs, exactly where he wanted to be—exactly where he knew  _ she  _ wanted him to be. 

But Ben was always an asshole first and foremost— or maybe he was perhaps just as into watching her squirm as she was into watching him do the same— and he winked at her before he began pressing kisses along the inside of her thigh. Rey groaned his name as she watched, propping her head up with one of her arms like he’d done earlier as his kisses got closer and closer to her entrance. Instead of finally putting his mouth—which she’d told him minutes earlier was going to be fantastic for doing this—where she wanted it, Ben gave her another lopsided grin, and began planting kisses along the inside of her other thigh. 

_ “Ben!”  _ Rey cried out beneath him, and he felt her growing wet around his fingers as he continued thrusting them into her. He chuckled into her skin, then he removed his hand, and looked up at her one last time before pressing one last kiss at the very innermost corner of her thigh,then finally, after making her wait several agonizing seconds, he finally went down on her. 

As Rey’s free hand reached down to tangle itself in his hair, he watched her head arch back into the futon as she swore loudly enough to wake up the entire city, much less the dorm building. In all likelihood, anyone walking in the halls outside would know instantly that someone in this dorm was having very loud sex, but he couldn’t bring himself to care about other people as his tongue darted out between his lips to taste her, gliding up until it reached her clit and she writhed beneath him. 

She tasted different than anything he’d ever had before, somehow both sweet and salty, and undeniably Rey all the same; and he knew he’d never grow tired of it. He’d never grow sick of the reaction he was getting from her; the fingers tangled in his hair, the nails scraping against his scalp, the soft cries as she writhed from pleasure beneath him while his tongue set about exploring her, or the way his name sounded as she panted it from her lips…

That last bit was doing things to him that a small voice in his head thought perhaps it shouldn’t be, but he ignored that small voice, and pressed on, wanting to bring Rey to that same precipice she’d brought him to earlier. 

“Oh,  _ fuck, _ ” Rey breathed as he closed his lips around her clit and sucked, causing the grip she had in his hair to turn to iron in a way that was almost painful, but he’d endure it if it meant he’d make her come into his mouth the way he’d come into hers. The thought of it made his cock harden in his jeans, but he found himself easily pushing down thoughts about his own pleasure as he focused on giving it to her. 

As he continued his ministrations, he could sense Rey losing her control as he built her to her orgasm. Her words became less coherent than they already were—which didn’t say much, she’d only mustered up swears and his name to begin with—and her breathing had become uneven beneath his touch. He could almost visualize the pressure mounting inside of her, ready to burst at any moment. 

When that moment came, her voice was the sweetest music his ears had ever heard. “Ben, Ben, I’m gonna…” she moaned incoherently as his tongue once again darted out from between his lips.

He released her then, but only for a second as he looked her in the eyes, hoping he had the same confidence she seemed to have when he told her, “Then do it,” before he took her clit into his mouth again. 

She swore breathlessly  as she came into his mouth, setting Ben’s entire body on fire as he felt her come undone beneath him. His name fell from her lips again as he continued to torment her with his tongue, drinking her in as if he’d been parched for days. The sound of it caused him to moan into her as he gripped her thighs tightly in his hands, and she gasped beneath him, her words coming out in incoherent babbles that he was completely unable to understand. Still he was filled with a sense of pride at the thought that he’d been able to do that to her, and he fought back a smile.  

He let her ride out her orgasm beneath him, listening to the sound of her breathing as it evened out, and he finally released her from his mouth before he crawled back over her, watching her chest heave for a few seconds as she came down from her high. Her eyes locked onto his, the expression in them unreadable, and he frowned, wondering if that was a bad thing. “What?” he asked, brushing a piece of hair out of her face. 

“Just…” She was at a loss for words, he could tell, and she continued staring at him with that same unreadable, perhaps mildly confused look as she used the hand in his hair to pull him down to her in another electricity sparking kiss. He could still taste the faint traces of himself on her tongue from earlier, and wondered what she was thinking as she no doubt experienced the same thing. 

Ben slowly settled his weight back over her as they kissed, relishing in the feeling of her warm body beneath his. As he laid there on top of her, he felt the butterflies fluttering in his stomach at the realization of what they’d just done to one another. He clung to her a little more tightly then, his kisses becoming slower, more soft and tender, and quite unlike the way you kissed someone who was just a fuck buddy. A part of him wondered if she could tell how he felt from the way he kissed her, if she knew the realizations he was quickly coming to about their relationship and the things she was doing to him. 

One of his hands slipped beneath her waist, and he pulled her closely against him as he turned them on the futon so that she was now on top of him. She hummed softly against him as his arms wrapped around her, embracing her intimately as he melted beneath each brush of her lips against his. If he wasn’t in too deep before, he certainly was now. 

Rey slowly pulled away from him a few seconds later, and gave him a soft smile, that unreadable look still showing faint traces of itself in her eyes as she rolled off of him, and grabbed the blanket he’d started keeping on the futon—which was probably overdue for a wash— covering them both in its softness as she settled down beside him. The corners of his mouth twitched as she slung an arm around his chest, and sighed contentedly into the crook of his neck. “Ben?”

“Hmm?”

“That was fantastic.”

His heart jumped in his chest. “Really?”

“Yeah, really,” she replied, then she grinned up at him, eyes flickering briefly back to his lips. “I knew there was something going on there.”

He laughed as the comment instantly reminded him of the one Phasma had made earlier about what was between his legs. His laughter was quickly shut down as he remembered why she had made that comment, and suddenly he could feel the damned box burning a hole in his backpack all over again. Swallowing nervously, he turned his gaze over to the backpack, wondering just when would be a good time to mention to her what he’d done. He supposed he’d have to tell her eventually when he explained that Phasma was now in on the bet as well, but he was—

“Are you alright?” Rey asked beside him, stopping his train of thought before it could properly get going. 

“Uh…” he breathed, trying his best to wrack his brain for an answer, but the useless excuse of an organ failed to even offer him a bad one. 

Luckily, there was more to the universe than Ben’s brain, and not even two seconds into pondering what to tell Rey, he was saved by the ringing of his phone. Whoever it was, he owed them a massive fucking favor. He quickly rolled over out of Rey’s grasp, both of them groaning at the loss of contact as he rolled just close enough to the edge of the futon for him to be able to reach the jacket he’d thrown off earlier at her request. Snagging it between the tips of two of his fingers, he quickly rolled back into the futon, wrapping an arm around Rey’s shoulders as he pulled the phone out of his jacket pocket. 

Perhaps he wasn’t so lucky after all. Poe’s face was lighting up his screen, with the contact name “Dameron,” flashing over the contact photo on each ring. “Oh shit,” he breathed, but Rey only snickered beside him as she watched. “This funny to you?”

She pressed a kiss to his shoulder. “It’s absolutely hysterical,” she said, then she gestured to the phone. “Aren’t you going to answer him?”

“Fuck, you’re right,” he replied, then he pressed the accept call button, and turned on the speaker. “What’s up?”

“Hey, dude,” Poe greeted him excitedly on the other end of the line. “So get this, it’s Friday, it’s early October, and we’re dumb college students...”

“I have a bad feeling about where this is going.”

His friend chuckled on the other side. “Ben, my Buddy, my boy… have I ever steered you wrong?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, you’re right, but that’s besides the point. There’s a party at some trash fraternity down on First Street tonight, and I think it’s been too long since the last time the bunch of us got hammered.”

Ben glanced at Rey, both of them fighting back a snicker at the fact that it had only been two weeks. He focused on keeping his voice level as he scratched his head, and sighed into the phone. “Poe, it’s only been two weeks.”

“So? That’s two weeks too many in my book,” Poe replied, then he cleared his throat. “Anyway, grab Rey, tell her to get her roommate, I’ll take care of Phasma, get your asses ready, I’ll be at the dorm with Finn in an hour.” He took a dramatic pause, allowing Ben to visualize the shit eating grin on his face. “We party like legends tonight,” he said, then he hung up, and Ben looked immediately down at Rey. 

“Do you want to party like legends tonight?” he asked, his voice dropping slightly as he imitated Poe. 

Rey cackled, throwing her head back against his shoulder, then she gave him a nod. “Yes, I do. I’ve had a hell of a week academically, I need to wind down… or wind up in a different way, I guess.”

Ben grinned at her, then he sighed. “Ugh, if we’re going to do this though, I’m gonna need a shower,” he said, slowly sitting up so as not to disturb Rey, who still groaned as her head was forced off of his shoulder once more. “Do you mind waiting for me?”

At the mention of that, her face suddenly shifted, and he could see the idea that had formed in her head even before she opened her mouth. “I don’t have to, I could always… join you,” she said, meeting his eyes cautiously as she gauged whether or not that was something he’d be okay with. 

Ben’s throat went completely dry at the thought, his cock slowly coming back to life in his jeans as he stared at her. They were going to need to slow down again after this. He could feel it, but for now, he was perfectly content to just lose himself in the feeling of being with her. One of the corners of his mouth slowly twitched upwards, and he grinned at her as he got up from the futon, and offered her his hand. “Come on.”

Rey’s face lit up with delight, her smile shining like the sun as she took his hand, and let him guide her off of the futon. The blanket she’d had covering herself fell to the floor as she moved, exposing her completely bare lower half to him once again as they walked over to the bathroom together. He only took his eyes off of her to open up the bathroom door, closing it quickly behind them so that he could open his shower and turn on the hot water. 

Once the water was running in a steady stream into the drain, he turned back to Rey, who was already looking up at him with mischief in her eyes as her hands slid onto his hips, feeling the fabric of his jeans. “I hope you’re not planning to keep these on when we’re in there.”  _ Christ _ . Ben was going to die a slow and painful death because of this woman, and she had no idea of the effect she was having on him. 

He forced himself to focus for a few seconds on the sound of the water hitting the shower floor, then he returned her playful stare. “Only if you take off yours,” he replied in a sudden surge of confidence. If he were being honest, he didn’t know where it was all coming from. Sure he’d watched porn and gotten the general idea of what to do or what to say, but he’d never done any of this himself. He should’ve been awful at everything they’d done so far, and yet Rey was enjoying every second of it. Perhaps he wasn’t as bad as he thought he was, or it was as he’d once said to her over the last week; some people were just naturally gifted.

Blinking a few times, Rey hesitated under his gaze, and for a moment he thought she was going to tell him she was done and backing out of the plan they’d had to shower together. She seemed to gather herself quickly, and nodded her assent as she reached for the hem of her t-shirt, and pulled it over her head so that she now stood in front of him wearing only a bra. Ben’s breath hitched as he stared at her chest, watching it rise and fall as she spoke, “Mind taking this off for me?” Her voice had dropped in pitch, and Ben swallowed dryly again as he gave her a nod. 

His hands reached up tentatively around her waist, his fingertips gliding gently up her back in their search for the clasp of her bra. She was watching him the entire time, the heat in her gaze growing more and more intense as his fingers found their way to where the fabric was held together by a single clasping mechanism. Sending up a silent prayer to all the gods he didn’t believe in, he began to meddle with it, trying his hardest to figure out exactly how to undo the contraption that supported Rey’s chest. 

It didn’t take her long to realize he was struggling, and it took her even less time to start giggling at him. “Having trouble?”

Ben gave her a pathetic groan, then he nodded, and continued his work. He finally got the clasp to open for him just as Rey was reaching up behind her to undo it herself. His eyes widened as he realized he’d done it, and before he could stop himself, an embarrassing shout of, “Yes!” left his mouth as his hands reached up to her shoulders, fingers grasping at the straps still resting there. 

Almost as if she couldn’t help it, Rey moved back from him, leaning against the wall for support as she wheezed her laughter, slamming a palm against the center of her chest as she stared at him. “Ben, oh my god, you’re…”  _ wheeze  _ “you’re killing me.”

_ That makes two of us, sweetheart. _

Ben blushed as she began to calm down, then he turned into an absolute tomato as she reached up, and slid the straps of her bra from her shoulders, letting it fall gracelessly to the floor. Would his heart ever stop hammering in his chest around her? Would his mind ever let him look at her without thinking that he might be rapidly falling for her without even being aware of when he’d started to?

He tried desperately not to think too hard on it as he took in the sight of her completely bare before him. Rey was truly something, and he wondered how in all the years he’d known her he’d just never noticed the subtle but present muscles that lay just beneath her skin, the soft swell of her breasts, the lines of her collar bone… His breathing left him in a shudder as she stood there under his gaze for a moment, seeming almost as hypnotized as he was by the energy that had started to build up in the tiny bathroom. 

In the end it was Rey who broke the connection first with another sly twitch of her lips as she reached for the shower door, pulled it open, and walked inside, leaving Ben stunned as he watched the water rush over her. She let it soak through her hair for a moment, swaying softly beneath the spray before she reached out a hand to him. “I believe this was your idea,” she reminded him, then Ben finally broke out of the spell, his fingers fumbling for the button of his jeans as he fought to free himself from their confines. 

She snickered as she watched him struggle with his clothing like she was a witch. Ben shot her an amused glare, locking eyes with her just as he finally managed to remove the anger inducing articles of clothing, kicking off his shoes in the process so that he was also bare before her eyes. The shuddering exhale that left her lips at the sight of him was doing things to his ego, and with that boost of confidence, he climbed into the shower beside her with a grin on his face as he closed the door behind him.

The warm water rushed over him instantly, and he hummed his contentment as he leaned his head back into the water, letting it soak his hair through completely. Once he finished letting the spray wash over him, he leaned his head down again to look at Rey, only to find that she was still taking in his fully naked body with a loosened jaw. “Ben, how long have you been this…?”

“Since about midway through high school, why?”

“Because you’ve been robbing the world, Ben,” she said, gliding a hand along the smooth planes of his pectorals. “This isn’t fair.”

Ben smirked at her high compliment, but the still shy, terrified part of him forced another crimson blush onto his cheeks as he looked down at her. Slowly, his eyes began to drift to her lips again, and with his left hand he reached up, and ran his thumb over her still kiss swollen bottom lip ever so gently. He only just managed to feel the soft skin of it before he slowly pulled it away, and brought his lips back down to hers. 

Rey returned the kiss without hesitation, wrapping her arms around his shoulders as she pulled him closer to her so that they were now both more evenly covered by the spray of the rather tiny shower. She moaned softly into his mouth as his tongue parted her lips and tangled with hers, making him feel dizzy with the endorphin rush that brought him as he began to move them backwards so she was pressed up against the wall as he kissed her. 

Rey gasped softly into the kiss as her back met the cold wall, but she didn’t let it deter her as she began to bring her kisses down to his neck. At first, her lips were soft against him, but about midway down his neck, she sucked a mark into his skin that nearly had him falling over and injuring them both on the shower floor. “ _ Fuck _ , Rey,” he breathed. 

Then she let go of him, and reached up a hand to caress his jaw. “That’s payback for earlier. Now you have to cover yours up, too.”

Ben laughed as he took her face in his hands. “You’re so bossy.”

“You like it,” she teased, licking her bottom lip as droplets of shower water rained down on her face. 

He paused for a second, then he leaned forward, and whispered in her ear, “You’re right,” before he was kissing her again, his soul feeling like it was on fire as he continued losing himself in her completely. 

As they kissed, a part of him had a thought that all the rice purity test demanded of him here to knock off another point was that he get in the shower with her. It never said to kiss her in the shower, or to remove her clothing. It never said they had to be naked in the first place. They’d just naturally assumed a lot of things about what they’d have to do, and with the way they’d just been casually hooking up over the last week they’d grown comfortable with kissing whenever they felt like it. Did most people who were just friends with benefits do that? Did they kiss each other just because or was it all supposed to be about sex?

Ben didn’t know much about real relationships, but he was fairly certain that spontaneous kissing was certainly a part of one, and the thought of had had him shivering with both excitement and fear. If Rey noticed him trembling this time, he had no idea. Before she could get the chance to call him out on it, they both froze as they heard the dorm’s front door opening, then the sound of Finn and Poe’s voices giggling as they walked into the room. 

The two people in the shower pulled apart from each other quickly as they realized the object of their bet was now just one door away from realizing what they’d been doing, thus ending the bet only a week into its life. What made matters worse, was Ben knew they’d left their discarded clothing out in the open floor where everyone could see it. Poe’s dirty mind would put two and two together instantly, and he would realize—faster than even Phasma, most likely— what had happened with him and Rey. They were completely, royally, fucked unless they somehow turned out to be incredibly lucky.. 

“Ben? You home?” Finn shouted after several seconds of silence. 

Ben and Rey looked at each other with fear in their eyes as they stood frozen in the aftermath of inevitably getting caught. “Uh… yeah, I’m still here, what’s up?”

“Oh, shit, you’re in the shower, uh… nothing I just… You heard about the party right?” he asked, and Ben couldn’t help but notice that there was something slightly… off about the way his roommate was talking. 

“You better tell me you’re coming,” Poe said,, his voice sounding like it was right outside the bathroom door. 

Rey held a hand over her mouth then, and at first he felt a wave of concern wash over him, but he quickly realized she was trying to stifle laughter. A small grin grew on Ben’s face as he answered Poe, “Yeah, I’ll be there, just give me ten minutes to get ready.”

A cackle came from the other side of the door, then Ben and Rey waited under the warm rush of the water, as Poe walked away, and muttered quietly with Finn for a moment. The entire time, Ben’s blood was rushing through his veins, his pulse audible in his ears as he stood on edge, waiting to be caught by his friend. 

Somehow, the moment he’d been dreading never came. 

Instead of the classic Poe Dameron taunting he was used to hearing, much to Ben’s disbelief he heard his friend walking past the bathroom door. “I’ll see you guys in half an hour. I’ve gotta look pretty,” he announced sarcastically, and Finn laughed distantly as Poe walked out of the dorm, and Ben breathed his first sigh of relief in minutes. 

Rey leaned her head against his chest as she finally let loose the laugh she’d been holding back, her chest heaving with sobbing laughter as his arms came up to wrap around her. “Oh my god.”

Ben found himself laughing right along with her, his relief overwhelming him as he realized they hadn’t been caught, and somehow the bet was still on. At least, it was if Poe wasn;t just putting up a front and pretending he hadn’t seen Ben and Rey’s clothes—thus allowing him to put two and two together. “That was…”

“The most intense ten seconds of your life?” Rey asked in response, a grin lighting up her face. “God, I thought for sure we were caught.”

He gave her a nod. “Me too. We got lucky.”

She beamed at him, but it wasn’t her who responded to his comment about their luck. On the other side of the door, a throat cleared, and Ben found himself going completely still as he waited for whoever the throat belonged to—he hoped it was Finn—to say something to them about what he was currently hearing. 

“Or maybe I’m the greatest friend the two of you don’t deserve and I’m going to need therapy after seeing your clothes on the floor,” Finn said, and Ben felt his entire body relax at the sweet relief that news brought him. “And I hate both of you.”

Ben and Rey cackled helplessly at that, then Finn’s footsteps retreated from the bathroom door, and in the distance he heard his friends bed freak as he flopped down onto it. Slowly, he turned his eyes back on Rey, who was still smiling as she looked up at him. “You know, I think we got interrupted back there.”

“Hmm, I think we did.”

She brushed a piece of his hair behind his ear, then she settled her palm against his chest, undoubtedly feeling his heart beating as she brought his lips back to hers, and kissed him thoroughly until they both decided it was time to leave the shower. 

He was fairly certain neither of them were actually much cleaner than they’d been when they started, but he didn’t have the time to worry about it anymore. After all, they’d promised Poe they’d attend that party, and they’d known him since their freshman year of high school. If someone double crossed Poe, he tended to be chill about it, save for the occasional petty—but overall harmless—revenge he later took out on those he called his friends. Ben knew they’d end up facing the wrong end of Poe’s mischievousness eventually, but he didn’t want it to happen just yet. 

He and Rey walked out of the shower with the remnants of their outfits in one hand and the fabric of their towels in the other. “Finn, avert your eyes!” Ben shouted, causing Rey to erupt into a fit of giggles beside him. 

Finn took one, brief look at them, then he quickly shoved his head into his pillow as he realized they were only wearing towels. An almost embarrassed grin erupted on Ben’s face he and Rey walked to where they’d last left their clothing, then he frowned, realizing he had no idea where the rest of his and Rey’s clothes had gone. “Finn?”

“God what now?” their friend asked, mild fear lacing his voice as he looked up, then he laughed as he saw the towels and clothes hanging from their hands. “Oh, shit. Yeah, I kicked them under the futon so Poe wouldn’t see.”

Ben snorted as he bent down carefully to inspect the underside of his futon to find that sure enough, his and Rey’s clothing was under there. Thanking Finn quickly for hiding them, he reached out to grab the clothes, handing Rey her jeans and “kiss me, I’m Irish,” underwear he couldn’t help but snicker at. She blew a raspberry back at him, but accepted them gratefully. 

“Finn, what did you do to keep him from seeing them?” Ben asked. “There’s no way he wouldn’t have noticed if you made it this far into our room.”

Finn covered his eyes with his hand, and groaned in response. Ben took that as his cue to begin carefully putting his clothing back on under the towel to prevent his roommate from seeing anything if he prematurely lowered his hand. Beside him, Rey sat down on the futon, and began to do the same as she grabbed his blanket, and covered herself with it while she put her clothes back on. 

“I saw them before he got the chance to ‘cause I walked in first,” Finn explained, gesticulating with his free hand. “So I just kinda… made out with him for a few seconds, then reminded him he needed to go make himself pretty.” 

Ben snorted at the memory, finally understanding Poe’s wording as he’d left the dorm; he’d stolen it from Finn. Throwing his shirt over his head, he sighed as he reached for the jacket he’d discarded earlier, shoving his arms through the holes before he resumed pulling his jeans up his thighs. “Why does Poe even want to go to a frat party anyway?”

Finn gave him a shrug. “I don’t know, I think he’s just in the mood for something more than a kickback.”

“You know what, me too,” Rey replied, and Ben blinked his surprise at her as he watched her finish zipping up her jeans, then she pulled her shirt down over the denim. A giggle left her lips as she looked over at him. “What? It’s actually sort of fun.”

Ben cocked his head to the side, then nodded his agreement with her reasoning. Any excuse to be drunk was actually rather fun, and drinking in the company of Poe guaranteed a wild, entertaining night no matter the setting. “Okay, that’s fair,” he replied as he finished pulling his jeans over his hips, buttoning and zipping them quickly before he looked over at Rey, who was already completely dressed. He could hardly tell they’d done anything together in the shower at all, except for…  _ oh shit. _

Both of them now had wet hair as a result of their spontaneous, intense kisses in the shower, which was a small detail Ben knew Poe would pick up on the moment he saw them again. His eyes went wide as he searched for an excuse, and Rey stared at him in concern. “Ben? What is it?”

“We both have wet hair,” he told her, then his eyes drifted down at the sudden appearance of another memory. “And hickeys… If we face Poe right now...”

Finn’s hand fell from his eyes, the short relief of seeing them both with clothes on quickly overshadowed by the realization that if they walked outside looking like they did, both of them would be very quickly caught by Poe. “Shit,” he breathed, then Ben watched his brows furrow together in concentration as he thought up solutions. Mercifully, his roommate’s mind wasn’t as blank as his was. “Just take the towels and…” He made a scratching motion by his head. “Sorry if that’s a bad idea, but it’s not like we’ve got a whole lot of options.”

Neither one of them argued with him, both him and Rey setting to work immediately at rubbing their hair with the towels in a desperate attempt to wick as much of the moisture from them as they could. It felt a little ridiculous, if he was being honest, but Finn was right, they didn’t exactly have a whole lot of options, and Poe was expecting them within at least the next ten minutes. They were just going to have to pray that they succeeded in drying themselves off enough to look presentable.

 


	6. Fifty One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GOOD GOD THIS MANS SCORE. I had to look over the score twice while checking the count for the chapter title because I DIDN'T BELIEVE WE'D ALREADY REACHED THIS POINT. Anyway, this is long as fuck, so I'm sorry, but I'm also not.

After a few minutes went by, Ben dropped the towel, and went to look at himself in the bathroom mirror to inspect the job he’d done. He exhaled his relief at the discovery that his hair—though now phenomenally tangled—was dry. “Finn, you’re a lifesaver, and I’m a dumbass.”

His roommate practically guffawed at the statement, and he could hear Rey’s laughter as well as she strode over to the bathroom, and slipped in beside him. A frown crossed both of their faces as they realized she hadn’t been as lucky with drying her hair, and the majority of it still seemed damp.

She groaned as she ran her fingers through her still damp hair. “Fuck.”

“Hey, guys, I hope you’re done,” Finn announced from his bed. “Poe just texted me that he’s left his building.”

Ben and Rey both froze, knowing exactly how much time this left them with. Poe lived in the slightly more expensive, loft-style dorm building that was a few blocks away from theirs. The walk between the two buildings was about four minutes, but it could be one depending on how fast they moved. Knowing Poe, on a night like this, he’d be closer to one minute. They needed a solution, and they needed it fast.

His eyes examined Rey’s hair for a moment, then out of the blue a memory popped into his head of the day they’d started all of this, when he’d braided her hair and they’d formed a pact to have lower scores than Poe by the end of the semester. Without hesitation, he reached up, and began to gather her hair into sections, making the drier sections larger than the wet ones as she stared at him quizzically in the mirror. “What are you doing?”

“Braiding your hair, saving our asses,” he replied. “Not necessarily in that order.”

Rey giggled as he began to weave her tresses into a single braid on the back of her head. “I think braiding my hair comes first,” she said, then he laughed as he continued his work until her hair was all gathered into the braid.

“Do you have a hair tie?” he asked, and she gave a small nod as she reached down to her right wrist, and pulled off a small, black band before handing it to him. He hummed his thanks as he took the braid he’d created, and pulled the base of it through the band, looping it around her hair a few times before he decided it was secure, and let it fall loosely against the base of her neck. “Done.”

Rey turned her head a few times, inspecting herself in the mirror. His braiding had successfully hidden the majority of her darkened locks, and she grinned as she looked at her reflection, then she turned to face him, and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Thanks, Ben,” she murmured softly into his ear.

His eyes closed as he returned her embrace, a feeling of contentment settling into him as they held one another in the bathroom. Again his thoughts returned to the unnecessary things they’d done for the bet and the increasingly not platonic things he was starting to think about her. Did she feel the same? Was that why she held him so closely against her? Why she kissed him when she didn’t need to? Spent the night at least three times after the test only said she needed to once?

She pulled away from the embrace first, though she didn’t pull herself apart from him completely, he noticed. Her hands now rested on his shoulders, but his stayed put on her waist as she pulled back enough for him to see her face, and his heart started hammering against his chest as he looked into her eyes. They weren’t looking back at him, though. No, she was staring at his lips again as if she were hypnotized by them. “Rey,” he breathed, wanting to say so many things in response to her intense stare, but he was interrupted by the sound of someone knocking loudly on their door. _God damn it._

Ben had never been more tempted to ignore a door in his life, and for another moment, he continued staring down at Rey. Swallowing nervously, he reached up a hand to caress her cheek as he wondered what would’ve happened and what it would’ve meant if they hadn’t been interrupted. He supposed he’d never know.

“I’ll get the door,” Ben said, then he dropped his hand from Rey’s cheek, and walked out of the bathroom toward the front door, forcing a smile on his face as he tried desperately to push down the thoughts of the moment that had transpired in the bathroom.

On the other side of the door, Poe, Phasma, and Rose were all waiting, and the first of those three was grinning wickedly, clapping his hands together as he walked into the dorm. “Who’s ready to get crazy?”

Ben rolled his eyes as he walked back into the main area of his room toward his closet, trading his hoodie for a leather jacket that would hopefully keep him warmer in the ten minute walk to the fraternity neighborhood. A thought crossed his mind that it would do a terrible job at hiding his hickey, but he pushed it aside with the thought that his hair would cover it up pretty sufficiently. Even when she wasn’t thinking too hard, Rey was considerate of her placement.

As the three of them walked into the dorm and began chatting with Finn and Rey, Ben remembered that she hadn’t brought a jacket into the dorm and she’d just let him braid her hair, completely exposing the area that he’d sucked a mark into earlier. Several swear words crossed into the forefront of his mind as he slid his arms into his jacket, then reached into the closet again for another hoodie, an old grey one he used to wear all the time in high school. She’d borrowed it several times already in the presence of Poe and their other friends, and he figured giving it to her now wouldn’t be suspicious.

He grabbed the jacket from the wardrobe, then he walked over to Rey, and when Poe was busy planting kisses all over Finn’s face, he gave it to her with a wink. His friend blushed as she mouthed a “thank you,” then Ben turned to the group, and cleared his throat. “Are we ready to go?” he asked as Rey slid her arms through the sleeves of his hoodie. The action forced him to have to think about how much he suddenly really liked the sight of her in his clothing, and as he listened to a chorus of people say they were ready to go, he pushed it from his mind, ready to drink away the issue of whether or not he was now genuinely falling for his best friend.

Ben and Rey walked to the party side by side while Rose and Phasma walked just ahead of them, and Finn and Poe led the pack. The entire time they talked, laughed, and joked, he fought the urge to reach out and hold her hand. It took all of his strength to remind himself that this was just a bet, and despite his growing romantic feelings for her he doubted she felt the same way. The bet was a way for them to use each other to spite Poe and nothing else, and he needed to remember that if he wanted to avoid heartbreak when the semester ended.

“Who do you think will be the most smashed tonight?” Rey asked him, bringing him out of his thoughts.

Ben shrugged, then he looked out at all of their friends, and thought over her question for a moment before his face erupted in a broad grin. “We’re gonna think it’s Rose, cause she’s such a lightweight, but…”

“But?”

“But in reality it’s gonna be Poe. He won’t be able to see straight at the end of the night, I guarantee you.”

She giggled. “What makes you say that?”

“He’s the one who suggested it, Finn’s usually Poe’s designated walker, Phasma can throw back more liquor than any of us have ever seen in our lifetimes, and you just… you have self control.”

Rey smiled softly up at him, melting the innermost parts of his soul as she walked by his side. Again he felt tempted to hold her hand, which swung casually at her side, her fingers hanging open and loose, just begging for him to lace his own through them. Mercifully, he was spared from having to worry about whether or not she even wanted him to by Phasma and Rose, who had dropped back to walk beside the two of them. “Are you guys planning on doing anything tonight?” Rose asked.

“Not sure yet,” Rey replied, kicking a loose pebble on the road. “Since we’re out with Poe, anything we do will be risky. If we want to avoid getting caught, we’ll have to lay low.”

Phasma chuckled lightly. “You could always ask us to cover for you.” She looked over at Ben, meeting his eyes. “Give yourselves an excuse to use those c—“

“I don’t know how much I’m willing to do in public yet,” Ben said before Phasma could out the condom secret to Rey. He still hadn’t told her about what was burning a hole in his backpack and he wasn’t sure when he was going to. “We’re just kind of figuring it out as we go.”

There was suspicion in Rey’s eyes as she looked at him, but she didn’t question his odd interruption as she nodded her agreement. “Yeah, we’ve just been doing this by a code of: if something happens, it happens. But if we need your help we’ll let you both know.”

“You’ve been doing that for the past week,” Rose reminded her, and Rey stuck out her tongue.

“You said you were okay with being kicked out.”

“Yeah, but knowing you’re in there dry-humping Solo everytime is not the most comforting thought,” Rose said dryly, causing Ben to snort.

The rest of the walk passed by relatively easy, and by the end of it, Ben found himself getting excited at the prospect of a night out with his friends. Normally he didn’t exactly like going out places, since despite having an abnormal amount of friends for someone so introverted, he still wore his people-loving energy thin at social gatherings. But tonight he was ready, and he had no doubt in his mind that whatever was going on with him and Rey was at the center of the blame.

The house they wound up partying at was a large, two story house with four columns lining the front porch. Already there were drunken students draped across the various furnishings positioned throughout the home’s front. Some were couples, making out against the columns or on top of a chaise, others were groups of friends gathered around on a sofa and cackling obscenely. Ben reckoned he and his friends would become the latter as they walked past the porch and into the house.

The thrum of a heavy bass swept up the soles of his feet through his entire body as a rap song he’d never heard of—and he doubted most of the people in there had either—blasted through a set of speakers he couldn’t see. All around him people moved in and out of the various rooms of the house’s first floor with little red cups in their hands, and in various stages of drunkenness.

Ahead of him, he could see Poe grinning wickedly as he plowed through the crowds to find the drinks, the others quickly following suit as they walked single file into the kitchen, where more bottles than Ben could count lined the counter. “Holy shit,” he heard Rey matter behind him.

 _Holy shit_ indeed. There was enough alcohol there to poison an army, and Poe had already started handing out red, plastic cups to the entire group. “Drink up everybody, this’ll be a night we’ll never forget.”

Somehow, Ben doubted the validity of that statement as he took a cup from his friend’s waiting hand, and began to fill it with a fair mix of soda and something with an alcohol percentage of forty. The others quickly followed suit, and soon enough all six of them were sipping steadily from their red cups, filling their bodies with the liquid disasters they’d created.

“I bet I can finish mine before you can finish yours,” Rey said to him as they made their way out of the kitchen, and toward the back deck, which was easily the least crowded portion of the house, with only about half a dozen other students slouched lazily throughout its expanse.

Ben smirked at her, shaking his head as they walked out into the cool, October air. “You’re fooling yourself if you think _you_ can outdrink _me._ ”

She quirked an eyebrow at him, then she raised her glass to her lips, and began to chug the drink just as she’d promised. Ben stared at her for a moment, wondering if she would actually be able to follow through with her promise to drink him under the table or if she’d chicken out midway through like he thought she would. Rey was always a wild card when she drank. Depending on the day, she could either flood the river Nile or she would throw up after a drop.

On this night, it would seem, she’d be drowning a river. Half of the liquid in her cup was now gone, and fearing for his pride, Ben muttered a swear, then he brought his cup to his lips and began to drink like his life depended on it. Oh, how he was regretting putting this much fireball into his cup. Sure, he’d mixed it with apple juice, but regret was already flooding through him as he realized just how badly the liquor would hit him about twenty minutes from this precise moment. Rey was likely going to regret it as well, she was smaller than him, and even in her best nights she could not drink as much as he did. What they were doing was a completely perfect recipe for becoming totally fucked and possibly unable to walk. They’d have to switch to something lighter after this and they’d only just started.

Rey didn’t make it to the bottom of her cup, she surrendered her fight with about a quarter of her drink still sloshing around in the plastic, and Ben gave up his soon after. Normally he’d be an asshole about this and keep going till he finished, but his drink was much stronger than he usually poured it, and he was finding that he didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as usual. “Fucking hell, Rey,” he breathed as he leaned against the wall, taking in the moonlight trickling in between the trees of the forest just beyond the backyard.

A playful laugh was thrown his way as she threw her head back, promptly hiccuping as she moved her head back down to look at him. “I definitely drank more,” she said, poking him in the chest.

Ben nodded slowly as he chuckled at her. “Yeah, yeah you did.”

“We’re off to a great start, aren’t we?”

“Oh, definitely,” he assured her as he took another sip of his drink. “We’ll be feeling that in about twenty minutes or so.”

Rey grinned. “It’s a shame you’ve already done all of this, otherwise you’d knock off a good forty or so points tonight.”

“I don’t know, I’m sure we can still find _some_ way to knock off points,” he replied, his eyes once again finding themselves locked on the woods, where just a few dozen yards past the tree line, he could see the glittering waters of the lake—Naboo, he vaguely recalled its name being— calling out to anyone who was drunk and stupid enough to take off their clothes at one of these parties. The lake and the frat were notorious for people either drunkenly streaking, skinny dipping, or both after the clock struck one in the morning. So far, it was a miracle that no one had died yet from passing out drunk in the lake, and Ben certainly wondered just how they managed that.

Rey looked like she was about to ask him what he meant, but then she followed his gaze out toward the tree line, and another round of laughter escaped her throat. “You’re not serious are you?”

His eyes met hers, and he smirked at her as he raised his cup to his lips. “I’m down if you are.”

Face falling slightly, Rey swallowed before she too took another sip of her drink, then she grinned at him. “I’m in, but first, more liquid courage.” She then took his hand tightly in hers, and led them back through the house into the kitchens again.

He vaguely wondered where the rest of their friends went as they wandered through the massive house, but he didn’t dwell too hard on it as he and Rey reached the drinks counter again. Before he thought to fill up his cup with anything else, he looked down at what remained within it, and threw it back like a shot while Rey’s eyes widened with impressed shock.

“Wow, Ben, maybe you _can_ drink after all,” she mused as she poured more tequila into her glass, then proceeded to drain the remnants of a two liter bottle of sprite.

He chuckled as he copied what she’d done, knowing full well that mixing his liquors was a terrible idea and a recipe for a disaster of a hangover, but he found that he couldn’t give less of a shit for future Ben. All that mattered was here, now, and Rey’s intoxicating smile as she reached out for his hand again. He laced his fingers through hers, exactly the way he’d wanted to earlier, then she led him out of the room, marching to the beat of the song that blasted through someone’s speakers.

All around them, people had started to rather drunkenly dance to the obscenely loud music, some of them were rather good and some of them were decidedly not. Either way, Ben was glad that he hadn’t drunk enough yet to want to join the group of fools who were grinding up against one another as a song with sexually suggestive lyrics spurred them on. Unfortunately for him, Rey didn’t quite have the same levels of shame even when she was perfectly sober, and he suspected the alcohol she’d imbibed had started to take its toll on her. She tugged on his hand to guide him into the living room of the house, where the real dance floor made itself known in the form of a crowd of sweaty, jumping bodies and hands flung toward the ceiling.

“Rey, what are we doing here?” he yelled over the noise, bending down to her ear so that she could hear him.

She grinned at him as her hand found its grip in his hair, and she tugged his ear to her mouth. “We’re dancing without leaving room for Jesus,” she replied, then she slung her arms around his shoulders, a bit of her drink sloshing onto his back as they joined the group of drunken students as they danced without care for who was watching.

A small part of Ben was worried that Poe would catch them as they danced, but as Rey pulled her body flush against his, and began to softly plant kisses on the base of his neck where his jacket left him exposed, he stopped caring—losing himself in the feeling of being beside her like this. After all, the semester was over in a month and a half. Unless Rey felt the same way he did, they were on borrowed time. He held her closely against him as he felt the alcohol swirling in his mind, sipping his drink in an effort to forget that in just two months this would all be over.

He and Rey danced for an indeterminate amount of time while the tequila and fireball they drank began to muddle their brains. Both of them worked to finish the replenished drinks they had in their hands as the time went on, the clock passing midnight as they ground against each other on the dance floor.

At one point, Ben thought he saw Poe and Finn sneaking off somewhere through the other side of the living room, and he grinned as he realized that they might truly be alone. He pulled back from Rey slightly, taking in her face in the dim light as he brushed back a strand of hair that had escaped her braid. Though he couldn’t hear it, he saw her breath hitch at the contact, then she swallowed nervously. “They might see, Ben,” she warned him, though he wondered how much that thought actually concerned her by the way her eyes drifted down to his lips.

He took another gulp of his drink, then he set it down on a nearby coffee table. “I just saw Finn and Poe leave,” he told her, a smile growing on his face. “There’s no one watching us now.” Well, he was certain that if someone looked over they’d see them, but none of those people would be Poe, and that was all that mattered. Hell, not even _that_ mattered much to him as he watched her unwrap an arm from his shoulders, then she took several long gulps of her drink while maintaining eye contact with him before she released herself from his grip.

Rey set her drink down beside his on the coffee table, then without giving him time to even blink, she took his face in her hands, and in a blur of motion her lips were on his. Ben’s alcohol fueled heart burst in his chest as he returned her kiss, tasting the sweet lemon-lime that lay in small traces on her lips as he gently swept his tongue into her mouth. His arms wrapped around her waist as he felt himself slowly losing the ability to stand, needing something to anchor himself to as they stumbled backward past the coffee table, and his back crashed into the wall.

Moaning into the kiss, Ben’s hands slowly glided up her back, feeling the soft cotton of his hoodie beneath his palms as they made their way to her hair to find their grip in it. She gasped as he tugged gently on her hair, his name falling from her lips as she broke apart from him just long enough to say it before she was on him again, sending bolts of electricity up and down his spine as the alcohol and her kiss made him dizzy. It felt like the room was spinning around them, and he and Rey were the only ones standing still. Everything became a giant blur while her tongue gained entrance into his mouth, tangling with his as he lost himself in the feeling of kissing her.

By the time Rey pulled away, Ben’s lungs were burning from a lack of oxygen, and he was panting hard as she kept him pinned against the wall, looking up at him with darkened irises as her chest heaved from the exertion. She gave him a wink, then she reached with her right hand for the drink she’d left behind on the coffee table, taking a good, long sip before she gestured toward his with a tilt of her head. “Come on, then.”

“Where are we going?” Ben asked, though he wasn’t sure he cared to know. If he were being honest, he’d follow this girl anywhere she decided to lead him.

“Outside,” she explained as she began to walk away, and he only just thought to grab his drink before hurriedly following her out of the living room, and walking back out onto the deck.

There was now a crowd of considerable size on the deck, one which included both Finn and Poe, though they were making out off to the side more so than participating in the social interactions of the rest of the party. Already people were making their way across the backyard toward the tree line in preparation for the legendary naked run into the lake, and Ben watched a wide grin form on Rey’s face as she looked out at them. “It’s almost time,” she said quietly. “Are you ready?”

He nodded, then he looked down at his clothes. “Where do we put these?”

All she gave him in response was a shrug, and it looked like she was about to say something else when suddenly an arm was draped over her shoulders, and Phasma appeared at her side. “Hi, guys,” she slurred as she took a sip from her own red, plastic cup.

“Hey, Phas,” Ben replied, certain he didn’t sound anymore sober than she did. “What have you been up to?”

“Nothing much, really, just getting absolutely shit-faced.” Phasma gave him a crooked grin as she took another sip. “Are you both planning to join the streaking party?”

“It’s on the list, so…?” Rey replied, winking at their blonde friend before she took another sip of her drink, causing Phasma to chuckle as she patted her arm drunkenly.

“Ah, I was gonna do it, too, perfect. It’ll look less suspicious if it’s not just the two of you.”

Ben frowned. “Rose not feeling up to it?”

Phasma shook her head. “Has she ever been one to take off her clothes for any reason whatsoever? No,” she pointed out, then a light-bulb seemed to go off in her head. “We should get her to take the test.”

“Fuck, we should,” Ben replied, a broad grin rising to his face at the thought. Before he could follow up that thought, though, someone cried out in the distance, and he couldn’t decipher much from the sentence, but he could definitely make out the words “clothes” and “lake,” and a rush of people sprinting into the woods ahead of them.

Ben, Phasma, and Rey all looked at each other, then he blinked as he watched phasma begin to strip right then and there. The blonde cocked her head in the direction of the lake as she removed her shirt. “What? If you want to have any hope of finding your clothing again after this, you leave it all in one place,” she explained as she dropped her shirt to the floor where she stood and began to unzip her boots. “Start stripping, Solo, that’s a nice jacket. I’d hate for you to lose it.”

A laugh escaped him as he set down his cup, and began to slide the jacket off of his shoulders. “You’re just saying that because you want to steal it.”

“It’s a nice jacket,” Phasma repeated with a shrug as she kicked off her boots.

Rey giggled at the two of them, though set down her red cup before she began to shrug off her own hoodie as she hurriedly joined them in the mad dash to sprint. “It is gorgeous.”

Ben shook his head at her as he moved on to his shirt. “Is there any other rule to this, Phas? You seem like you’ve done it before.”

“Everyone always waits to take off their underwear until they’re in the woods. That way no one can take pictures and blackmail you later. It’s also how they’ve avoided getting caught by campus police for so long, well, that and they have somehow never realized that drunken college students will, in fact, run naked through three hundred feet of forest,” she explained. “And don’t lose your socks ever. It’s a good three hundred feet through the woods before you reach the lake, and you don’t want to know what’s on the ground.”

“Noted.”

The three of them proceeded to strip until they were all in their underwear, then Ben looked between Rey and Phasma, and the three of them shared a brief, wide grin as they joined the small crowd of about a dozen or so skinny dippers as they ran into the forest. Fueled by alcohol and a knack for bad decisions, Ben listened to Phasma’s advice, taking off his boxers and holding onto them in his hand about midway through the run to the forest.

He heard Rey give a victorious shout beside him, then when he looked over in the dim moonlight, he saw her waving her bra and those god damned boyshorts proudly— _drunkenly—_ in the air as they ran the last of the distance toward the water.

Ben broke the tree line first, his sock-covered feet pounding against the sand for a moment before he was suddenly running through alarmingly cold water. He cried out as the water came up to his waist, and all around him he listened to the similar cries of a dozen more drunken college students shouting out the same as they too came in contact with the cold water of the small lake. The sight of it bewildering to him as he watched them splashing around violently as they ran into it. Some were engaging in splash fights, some were just standing there watching the others, and some were off in corners doing what they’d been doing on the furniture in the house—making out.

Suddenly a wall of water hit Ben’s back, and he yelped as he turned around to find Rey preparing to splash him again, her hand mere inches away from the water’s surface. He thought quickly, then Ben slammed his hand down on the rippled surface of the lake, and sent the next wave careening into his friend as she cried out in shock. “It’s cold!”

“No shit,” he replied, then he splashed at her again, feeling sobered somewhat from the cold temperature of the water.

Rey gasped, then she quickly hit him back, but he jumped out of the way just before her wave could hit him. This would’ve been effective, if it weren’t for the fact that he just jumped directly into Phasma’s as she finally reached them, joining in on the now three man splash fight. Well, to be more accurate, it was her and Rey against him.

After a moment of being assaulted on both sides, Ben dove underwater, swimming in Rey’s general direction until he burst from the water in front of her, tackling them both under the surface of the water for a few seconds before he pulled them up, and she giggled as he held her in his arms, the water gently lapping at their waists as they stood chest to chest.

The pale, silvery moonlight caught in the water droplets on Rey’s skin, mesmerizing Ben as he stared down at her, and he reached up a hand to touch them gently, wiping them away so that all he could see was Rey’s golden skin tinged almost blue by the light. It was almost hypnotic, the way she stared up at him, her hazel eyes boring into his, the expression in them—

A throat cleared behind him, interrupting Ben from his thoughts, and he turned to see Phasma staring at them with her arms crossed over her chest. “I’ll go hang out with the other drunkards if you two need a moment,” she said with a wink, then she turned, and swam over to the main group of naked students.

Ben laughed as he watched Phasma swim away, then he turned back to Rey, and laughed at what he saw. Her hair had started to tumble out of the braid he’d put together in his dorm hours earlier, and was now falling out of the hair tie he’d secured it with in large chunks.

“What’s so funny?” she asked him.

He didn’t answer her verbally, instead, he reached up behind her, and let his fingers search for the band until he found it, then he gently pulled it loose from her hair before holding it out to her. She held out her palm, then waited for him to drop it inside before she slid the band around her wrist, then she slung her arms around his neck, pressing her bare chest against his as she laughed softly. “So now you’ve gone skinny dipping.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, guess I have.”

“What are your thoughts?”

“I’m cold,” he admitted, then they both burst into another fit of giggles. “But other than that…” He pulled her more tightly against him. “It’s nice.”

Rey grinned at him as she began to comb her fingers through his wet hair. “This is so stupid, we’re probably never going to see our clothes ever again.”

“I think we’re both a bit too drunk to care,” he replied as his hands skimmed up her bare waist, reminding him of when they’d been in the shower together earlier, of their soft, sweet kisses before they’d been interrupted by Finn and Poe.

“Maybe so,” she replied. “But I don’t think I’m too drunk for this.” With that, Rey pulled his head down, and brought his lips to hers, kissing him like they were the only two people in that lake, or for miles, as if there was no one around whatsoever to see them.

Ben hummed into the kiss as he wrapped his arms around her waist, as he returned it, the kiss gaining the same level of passion they’d had when they’d been inside the house earlier. But after a few seconds, it hit him that they were both naked and very much in public, and he suddenly felt a little anxious. “I can’t do this here,” he said, pulling away from her slightly.

She gave him a nod and a kind smile. “It’s okay, Ben, I understand.”

“Maybe one day I’ll be ready for it, but for now…”

Rey took his face in her hands again, forcing him to look down at her. “Ben, it’s okay,” she assured him, her thumb beginning to gently stroke his cheek. “Do you want to leave?”

“I want to go back to the party, if that’s what you’re asking,” he replied as he fiddled with the boxers he still held in his hand. “The night’s still young.”

Shaking her head at him, Rey laughed as she began to slide the straps of her bra over her shoulders, concealing her breasts from view as she did the clasp in the back, then she cocked her head in the direction of the forest. “You ready?”

“Always,” he replied, then the two of them waded out of the water, and began their mad dash through the woods once more. Ben shoved his legs back into his boxers mere seconds before he crossed the tree line into the back yard, nearly forgetting to put them back on in the combined idiocy of his own drunkenness and the desire to find himself by Rey’s side once more.

She broke through the tree line first, which he knew because by the time he got back to the porch, she was already wearing her jeans and was in the process of shoving her t-shirt over her head. Ben called out her name as he approached, and she tossed him his clothes in response. “Your shirt’s missing,” she told him, her voice slurring slightly. “But other than that, everything’s still here, shoes and all.”

“Are you okay?” he asked as he began to shove his feet into the legs of his jeans.

“I think… the shit we drank right before we ran out here… is hitting me…” she explained as she shoved her arms through the sleeves of Ben’s hoodie, her left arm missing the sleeve a good half a dozen times before she finally made it through.

Ben laughed at her as he watched, then he frowned as he realized that he, too was being hit by the liquor. Now that they weren’t in the freezing cold waters of the lake, he started to really feel the dizziness caused by the poison in his bloodstream. His vision was unfocused, and it felt a bit like the room was spinning as he put his arms through the sleeves of his leather jacket, finding that he was completely incapable of giving a shit as to the whereabouts of his shirt. He figured it was a decent look if the way Rey was looking appreciatively up and down the line of his abdominal muscles was anything to go by.

Perhaps he ought to go out like that more often.

His vision continued to fail him as he shoved his feet into his shoes, struggling to tie the laces on his sneakers as he looked up at her helplessly. “You… you know… I think we ought to go home after this…” he said—or more accurately, slurred— as a shy grin developed on his face.

“I think you may be right,” she said. “The room is spinning… We should probably head back.”

“We should.”

“Can I crash on your futon tonight? It’s… lower… to the ground… than my bed is…”

Ben laughed as he finished tying his shoelaces, then he stood up, and took her hand. “You can always crash on my futon, Rey. You don’t even have to ask,” he replied, then he glanced at the interior of the house. “Do you want to tell our friends we’re going home?”

“I’ll shoot Finn and Rose a text,” she replied with a wave of her other hand, then she squeezed his, and tugged. “Come on… let’s go home.”

It took all of his willpower not to think about the way she referred to his dorm as home. If he thought about it, then that meant he would start to ask her about it in his inebriated state, and that wasn’t a conversation he was ready to have while _sober._

He and Rey made their way through the throngs of bodies, walking until they reached the front room, where they were stopped by a hand that shot out and grabbed Ben’s arm. He jumped, spooked for a split second by the sudden, unexpected contact, but then he relaxed when he realized it was just Rose. “You guys heading home?” she asked.

Ben gave her a nod. “Yeah… we’re both… too drunk…” he said with a giggle that certainly sold the idea.

Rey’s roommate patted him on the shoulder. “I’ll tell Finn and Poe you guys headed back. We’re thinking of sticking around a bit longer.”

“Alright, we’ll see you later, then,” Ben replied as he reached for the knob of the front door. “Thanks, Rose!”

“No problem!” she shouted as Ben threw open the door, and Rey yelled out a goodbye to Rose as the two of them walked out onto the front porch, pushing past the crowds of people as they walked—or more accurately, stumbled—into the night, hopeful that they’d make it home in one piece.

Luck, as well as a phenomenal attempt to feign sobriety appeared to be on their side that night. They managed to not only make it back to their building, but to not alert any of the people in the lobby as to their absolutely hammered state as they walked into the elevator, and managed to press the fifth floor button on the first try. They nearly fell over each other, though, as they walked out of the elevator, where they proceeded to pull a talented maneuver of drunken coordination to get to the door of Ben’s dorm, which took them probably two minutes more than necessary to unlock thanks to his fumbling fingers.

A minute later, Ben and Rey stumbled into the dorm, the two of them barely able to walk as he guided his friend toward his futon, listening attentively to her quiet little mumbles. “That…. tha… that was… great… so good…” she was telling him, prodding his chest gently as he set her down on the futon.

“Mhmm,” he replied, lying her down on her side as he reached drunkenly for his blanket, and then promptly laid it over her. “We… we had a g… good time to-tonight.”

She grinned at him, then she yawned loudly. “Ben?”

“Yeah?”

“Will you stay with me?” she asked, her voice so hopeful, soft, and surprisingly clear as she begged him to stay at her side.

His heart skipped a beat in his chest, and as she scooted over on the futon to make room for him, he knew he couldn’t refuse her even though he’d intended to sleep in the lofted bed above him. He’d been neglecting it for a week, and a part of him felt weird to sleep with her when they were both so drunk, but she was lying there with a hand outstretched toward him and pleading eyes that begged him not to leave. He figured that as long as they didn’t do anything sexual, they’d be okay. Slowly, he gave her a nod, then he shrugged his leather jacket off of his shoulders, letting it pool on the floor so that he now stood before her naked from the waist up—he wondered if he’d ever see that shirt again— then he lifted the blanket, and crawled into the futon beside her.

Instantly, Rey slung an arm over his waist, cuddling up against him as she wrapped a leg around one of his, pulling him closer to her. “That’s better,” she murmured, then she pressed a soft, closed-mouthed kiss to his jaw. “Good night, Ben.”

He kissed her forehead in return. “Goodnight, Rey,” he said quietly, wrapping an arm tightly around her waist, and pulling her closely against him as sleep began to overtake his friend. Oh, they’d drank so much that night, a part of him was concerned for how the two of them would handle any sort of sleeping, but he didn’t want to think on it too hard as he held her tightly against him.

That night, wild and insane as it was, had been the best night of his life so far. Everything about it had been absolutely perfect. Every single time he and Rey had kissed had been intensified by the alcohol coursing through their veins. His memories were blurry, but he knew he’d never forget the way it had felt to hold her while they were naked in the lake which had been full of people, and yet it had felt like the rest of the world just melted away. It had been almost like it was only the two of them, and he was absolutely certain that he wasn’t supposed to feel that way about someone who was just a friend. No platonic kiss did that to a person, and suddenly Ben had a heart stopping realization.

It wasn’t just a crush, it wasn’t just a little “hey, maybe I like this person,” or thinking she was kind of pretty. It was years upon years of friendship, of getting to know her in a way more intimate than any sort of sex he might have with her finally building up to a tipping point. The tension of sixteen years of knowing her and loving her as his friend had subconsciously built and built and built until suddenly he knew… he was in love with Rey. More importantly, he was in love with Rey in the way he’d only ever heard about in stories; in the books he’d read and the movies he’d watched. He knew then, without a doubt, that he was in love with her.

“Fuck,” he breathed, using his free hand to cover his eyes as the room spun around him from both the liquid poison killing his liver and the life altering knowledge that he was in love with the girl he’d played with in a sandbox. He’d always loved Rey, he’d always cared about her and known he wanted her in his life, but he didn’t know until the bet that he wanted it to be like… that. Thanks to their petty bet against Poe, something had awakened in Ben that had him breathing hard as he held her close in his arms, not wanting to believe that he only had another month and a half of holding her like this.

“Rey?” He asked softly, wondering if she was still somehow awake to sense the fear arising within him. “Rey, are you awake?”

She didn’t move. Her chest continued to rise and fall, and he felt the rush of warm air as it left her lungs and landed on his neck, but other than that, she stayed completely still. Ben swallowed nervously as he pulled back from her just enough to look down at her sleeping face, and he felt a rush of heat flood his entire body as he took in the sight. “Rey, I hope to god you’re asleep,” he said quietly, his voice a whisper as he began to gently stroke her hair. “Cause if you ever heard this, I’d probably die on the spot.”

He cringed in that moment, shaking his head at himself. What the hell was he doing? Why was he telling her this? More specifically, why was he telling her _like_ this? Probably because it was the coward’s way out, and Ben considered himself to be just that, a coward. This way, he could get his feelings for her off of his chest, and there’d be no consequences, and he could just blame it on the alcohol if she woke up and heard what he had to say. It was the perfect, self-cleaning excuse.

“Rey, I… I think... I love you,” he said, pressing his forehead against hers as reality continued to swim around him. “And I don’t know what to do. Cause when this bet is over… are we supposed to go back to the way things were? Am I supposed to sit here with you on the futon and not think about all the places I want to touch you? Do I just stop thinking about...?” His sentence trailed off as exhaustion began to take its hold over his mind.

“I don’t want to stop, Rey,” he admitted, swallowing back the lump that had started to form in his throat as tears began to rise to his eyes. “With you? I don’t… I don’t ever want us to stop…”

He pressed another kiss to her forehead as he held her close, and closed his eyes, letting a single tear fall down his cheek as the first tendrils of sleep began to take over his mind. “Anyway… I’ll probably… forget this… in the morning…” he mumbled, letting the hand stroking her hair fall loose behind her. “Goodnight, Rey.” With that, Ben fell instantly into a deep sleep, and while he certainly forgot a lot of the smaller details of that night, the one thing he never forgot was the very first time he told Rey he loved her.


	7. Forty Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's almost Halloween so, I figured it was time things got spooky.

The next morning, Ben woke up with the worst headache he’d ever had in his life, and a blinding light that wouldn’t abate even when he closed his eyes. A groan left his lips, and he clung tightly to the warmth in front of him, which he vaguely registered as belonging to Rey as he buried his face in the pillow on his futon. 

An overwhelming feeling of  _ what the fuck happened last night,  _ washed over him, and he felt a wave of nausea pass through his system as he remembered the party in bits and pieces. Then he felt contentment as he recalled the feeling of Rey pressing him up against a wall, her tongue drunkenly tangling with his in the darkened party room, the feeling of her grinding on him as they danced “without leaving room for Jesus,” and the increasing buzz he’d felt from the liquor they drank. He remembered the cold of the water as they’d run into it naked as the day they were born, the kiss they’d shared in the moonlight, waist deep in the water. 

But none of those memories could quite compare to the recollection of the last thing he’d done before he’d lost consciousness. Nothing quite matched the sheer terror and delight of telling Rey that he loved her, the risk he’d taken knowing there was a sliver of a chance that she might hear him… He almost felt dread at the prospect of what would happen when she woke up, but it may have been a good sign that she hadn’t left him yet, it meant that if she had heard him and she’d woken up before him, she’d decided to stay. 

“Rey,” he said softly, then with another soft groan, he opened his eyes, and looked down at Rey’s still sleeping form. She looked so peaceful in her sleep, he felt bad for calling out her name on the off chance that it would wake her. A sigh left his lips as he reached up, and moved a piece of her hair out of her ear like it would spare her the absolute nightmare of a hangover she’d no doubt have when she woke up. 

She stirred softly at his action, her nose twitching as a strand of her hair brushed by it, and he found himself smiling at the sight.  _ Fuck,  _ he was so gone. He couldn’t event try to excuse last night’s actions as a thing of his drunken mind, they were all real. He was truly in love with her. 

Ben leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead, then he slowly pulled back, and looked around the room. It was just as they’d left it the previous evening, except now there was a large lump in Finn’s bed belonging to at least two people, and a smile rose to his face as he realized they’d also made it home safe last night. A part of him had been worried for his friends, but he’d been too drunk and lost in confessing to Rey to try and figure out what happened to them. He supposed that at some point after he and Rey walked in, they’d come in and passed out on the bed, but he wondered just how they’d managed to do so without waking him up.

A soft hum came from beside him, and he quickly—well, as quickly as he could without becoming phenomenally dizzy— turned his attention back onto the girl in his futon. She turned her head into the pillow, like he had when he first woke up, and he quickly worked to pull the futon’s blanket over their heads, shielding them both from the light as it threatened to blind them. 

“Thanks,” her voice croaked, and he laughed softly at the sound. “Shut up.”

“Are you okay?” he asked, resting his free hand gently on her waist as she slowly blinked awake, her hazel eyes locking onto his, and at first she seemed almost a little ticked off, but then when she seemed to register it was him she was looking at, a small smile rose to her face. 

She shook her head. “I feel like shit, Ben. God why did we drink that much last night?”

“We weren’t exactly thinking,” he grumbled, then he chuckled. “It was fun, though.”

“Yeah, you certainly knocked off a few points,” she said with a wink, then he shushed her. 

“I think Poe’s right there,” he explained when she gave him an offended look, then he lowered his voice to a whisper. “I mean, I don’t know for certain, but…”

“I get the point, Ben. Don’t worry,” she reached up to rest a hand on his bare chest, and he wondered if she could feel how hard his heart was hammering beneath her touch. His eyes drifted down to where she was touching him, just over his left pectoral muscle, then back up to meet hers, and he found them already staring down at his lips. Just like that he found himself in another room, with copious amounts of alcohol flooding through his veins and his back pinned to the wall while she kissed him in a way that made him feel alive. 

Despite the hangover that was now pounding against his skull, Ben was fairly certain that if she moved forward to kiss him now, he’d feel exactly the same way. “I wonder how much more we have left on the list,” he murmured softly, then he sighed. “Can’t be much left now that doesn’t include getting arrested.”

“Mmm, I don’t think we should do that,” she said, grinning widely at him, then she sighed. “We’ve started to reach into the territory of things even I haven’t done, Ben… This is… this is starting to get serious.”

“It is.”

“Do you want to back out?”

“No, do you?”

She shook her head. “No, god no,” she replied, then she froze, seeming to realize what those three words could imply, and just as Ben’s heart skipped a beat in his chest, she sighed. “I just mean… I’m enjoying this. Not just getting at Poe, but… Anyway, I’m good to keep going if you are.” 

If he hadn’t been certain before, he was certain now. He was going to die a slow and painful death because of this woman. What had she been about to say before she’d interrupted herself? That sentence left a lot of thoughts running wild in his head, thoughts about repeating to her what he’d said the night before when he was drunk off his ass, only this time he’d do it sober.  “I’m good,” he promised, though his voice came off as a bit of a squeak as he said that last bit, then he took in a deep breath, and traced circles in the skin of her abdomen where her top had come up slightly. “I’m good.”

Rey grinned at him, then she paused, and her palm shifted a little on his chest. “We’ll need to slow down again after this. I think we’ve been moving a little bit too fast.”

He nodded, and while a part of him was disappointed, the overwhelming majority of him  was relieved she felt that way. There wasn’t much left of the test that didn’t involve either sex or getting arrested and doing drugs, if there was anything at all. After all they’d done, the question of his virginity still hung in the air above him. It was going to be the most intimate thing they’d done yet, sealing him to her in a way he hadn’t ever been emotionally tied to anyone, it transcended the physicality of what they’d been doing so far—but hadn’t they already been rather intimate with one another? Beyond what they thought they’d be within the confines of a friendship?

Still if he was going to do this with anyone, he was absolutely delighted that it was going to be her. He’d had crushes on people, sure, and in their freshman year of high school, he’d briefly dated a girl that he hadn’t been all that into and he’d really just gone out with her because he was curious. They’d lasted all of two weeks, but it had been long enough for him to knock off that point at least on the rice purity test. But other than that, no one until Rey had made him feel like he was willing to give up that part of himself, to lose himself completely within another person. 

He just wasn’t quite ready for that  _ yet _ . 

“I think you’re right,” he replied, then he leaned down, and pressed his forehead against hers. “I’m starting to get a little nervous.”

She laughed, though it was an anxious one as she reached up her other hand to wrap her fingers within the locks of his hair. “Me too, but… Ben, I promise you, whatever happens, it’ll be amazing.”

“How do you know that?”

Rey shrugged. “It’s you and me, and we’re good at just about everything,” she replied, her warm breath ghosting over his lips, sending shivers down his spine. 

“I think you’re right,” he replied, then he gave her a small chuckle. “But before we slow down…” He didn’t bother trying to finish his sentence, instead, he leaned forward, and kissed her softly, tasting the morning and the traces of alcohol from the night before on her lips. She hummed perhaps a little bit too loudly, and from the other bed, Ben heard a groan, causing both of them to freeze as they pulled apart. 

“Not here,” Rey said, a mischievous glint in her eyes as she pressed her index finger to his lips, grinning slyly at him as she spoke. She then leaned forward, and kissed him one last, very brief time. “Not while they’re in the room.”

Ben let out a breathy laugh as they waited for more sounds from the other side of the room. They quickly came in the form of a very Poe-like yawn, followed by Finn’s voice grumbling, “oh, what the fuck?” just loudly enough for him and Rey to hear it. 

The profanity coming from Finn’s mouth caused Ben to laugh involuntarily, and he chuckled as he pulled apart from Rey, and turned around so that his back was to her as he lifted the blanket to face Finn and Poe. “You guys okay?” He croaked, looking up at the bed on the other side of the room to see Poe looking as if he were going to throw up at any second. 

“I think I need to use the bathroom,” Poe mumbled, then he threw back the covers to reveal Finn’s back, and Ben noticed both of them were still fully clothed from the night before, shoes and all. He shook his head and laughed at his friend as he felt Rey wrap an arm around his waist, burying her face in his upper back and forcing him to realize he was still shirtless. If Poe was in a more lucid state of mind, he surely would’ve noticed. 

Thinking quickly, Ben pulled away from her—much to her disappointment if that soft little groan that drove him  _ absolutely crazy  _ was anything to go by—and reached down to the ground near the futon, grabbing a t-shirt he’d left there while infinitely more sober, and throwing it on before he laid back down beside her. “I never did figure out where my shirt went last night,” he grumbled as he wrapped an arm around her waist. 

She shrugged. “I don’t know, I think you looked just fine without it.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, it kind of—“

She didn’t get to finish her sentence, at that point they were interrupted by the sound of Finn’s voice . “Are you two  _ trying  _ to get caught?” Finn asked, causing Ben to snort as he turned to face him. 

“Good morning to you, too, Finn.”

“You know he had to have seen you this morning, right?”

Rey groaned as she sat up beside Ben. “The point of the bet is for Poe not to figure out that we’re trying to beat his score. He can know that Ben’s dropped a few points. We can’t get away with  _ everything _ .”

A grin developed on Ben’s face as he nodded his assent. “Yeah, and besides, we both agreed to slow down some after tonight. We’ve still got nearly two months of semester left anyway.”

Finn chuckled at them, then he shook his head. “I don’t know, with the way you two have been going lately? I don’t think slowing down is in your vocabulary.”

Ben gave him a nervous laugh in return as his thoughts turned back to the test, and just where they stood now. He turned to look back at Rey, watching as she smiled at Finn, and cracked a joke while they heard the toilet flush in the bathroom, then they quickly dropped the subject as Poe returned to the land of the living, and they all acted like they’d been talking about the weather. 

As it turned out, he and Rey were perfectly capable of slowing down. For the next two weeks, they didn’t try anything new. They continued to meet in the library and their encounters on the futon were a promise by the end of the day, but other than that their speed slowed to a crawl. The only point they crossed off the list together was when Poe got the bright idea the next weekend to take them into town to a strip club, which hadn’t been that exciting, since it was a small town and thus there wasn’t a lot to see, but still both he and Rey had been able to cross another point off the list. What made the experience worth it, though was Poe’s continued usage of the term Saint Solo to describe Ben, mostly due to his shock at seeing some of the things the pole dancers could do. 

“Normal people can’t bend like that,” Ben whined as they left, walking back home with shock hunching his shoulders. “It’s not human.”

Poe had simply laughed and grumbled, “Ah, Saint Solo, at it again,” under his breath, then they continued their walk back to Ben’s car.  _ If only he knew, _ Ben thought,  _ if only he fucking knew.   _

And then there had been another two points he’d crossed off on his own, both of them stemming from the speeding ticket he’d only just managed to talk his way out of the next day. Apparently some cops were hard asses when you went just five miles over the speed limit. Thanks to Ben’s previously spotless record and a remembered piece of his father’s advice on how to properly charm people, he’d managed to get himself out of it, but only just. Still, he’d managed to knock off another two points from the test for being chased and questioned by a cop, and Rey hadn’t even been in the car with him. He’d been alone. 

Poe had laughed his ass off when Ben came home with the story, joking that saint solo was slowly being corrupted, and having no idea how right he was. Later that night, Ben took the test again while he and Rey studied for their midterms in the library, revealing his score to be down to a forty eight despite still being a virgin. When she took the test after him, they were both surprised to find that she actually matched his score now, and they’d gotten onto the same level. This had led to another round of public library kissing, only this time, since it was her day off,  Holdo wasn’t there to catch them. 

Now, two weeks later, they were in his car again, only this time they’d piled Rose in there with them,sandwiching her between Finn and Poe as they headed into town to explore the Halloween store. The holiday—which was easily Ben’s favorite— was fast approaching, with only six days until their first Halloween on campus. Thanks to midterms, none of them had been able to find the time to costume shop much beforehand, and so they found themselves needing to find costumes at the last possible minute, and they would have to buy them from a bag. 

“What are you guys thinking you’ll go as this year?” Rose asked. “Cause I’m definitely feeling the superhero trend.”

Poe shook his head. “I don’t know, I’m thinking something basic but kind of sexy at the same time. Maybe I’ll go as a pirate.”

“What about a pirate is sexy, babe?” Finn asked, his voice rising in pitch as he looked at him in confusion. 

A grin rose to Poe’s face as he leaned over Rose, and locked eyes with his boyfriend. “Have you ever seen the Pirates of the Caribbean movies? There’s plenty… plus…” he leaned forward, his lips just barely ghosting Finn’s causing Rose to press herself against the back of Ben’s car seat to avoid contact with either of them. “Pirates always get the booty.”

“I’ll slap you,” Finn muttered as he pulled away, then Rose breathed a sigh of relief as Poe fell back against his seat in laughter. 

“If I’d known you two were going to spend the entire trip making out over me, I would’ve called shotgun.”

“Sorry, Rose,” they replied in unison, then quickly burst into more giggles. 

Ben shook his head at the antics in the backseat, then he smirked as he locked his eyes on the road ahead of him, watching the soft pink and orange light of the sunset as it dipped beneath the horizon. “What about you?” He asked Rey. “Got any thoughts about what you wanna be this year?”

“I have no idea,” she replied, fiddling with the hem of her short, faux-leather skirt. “This is gonna be the first Halloween we don’t spend trick or treating.”

“Oh god, you’re right…” he breathed, remembering the last sixteen Halloweens they’d spent walking through the streets of their neighborhood together—then later with Poe—all through high school. They’d never quite grown out of the love for dressing up and walking around collecting candy. Even now, Ben found himself itching to grab a pillowcase and maybe walk door to door around the dorm building taking candy from bowls. After all, the tradition offered him free food, and as a broke college student, who was he to deny that?

“At least we still get to dress up,” Rey muttered, then she grinned at him as she rested a hand on his upper thigh. “What do you think you’ll be?”

Heart racing in his chest at the contact, Ben’s foot twitched on the accelerator, though he barely noticed their change in speed as his mind went into overdrive at the contact. A soft snicker sounded from the back seat as Rose called up to him, “Hey, watch your speed, Solo, that asshole cop might still be around.”

Letting out a nervous laugh, Ben eased his foot off the accelerator, and glanced over at Rey, who was staring out the front window smirking like she knew exactly what she was doing.  _ Minx.  _ Two could play at that game, though certainly not with Poe a mere two feet behind him. Still, he had every intention of clearing out that backseat and taking his vengeance later.

They managed to arrive at the costume store without trouble ten minutes later, though Ben could still feel a blush creeping up his cheeks from when she’d rested her hand on his thigh. Her fingertips had been just inches from where he so desperately wanted them to be, and it had driven him absolutely insane to have to hold himself back from encouraging her. 

Instantly, they were greeted by the sight of various tall structures that served as displays for the larger, more opulent Halloween decorations that cost upwards of one hundred dollars, the sort of things that were animated and made sounds. The five of them walked past those, and made their way straight to the sides of the store, where costumes and accessories lined the walls and various shelves. 

Poe clapped his hands together, grinning wickedly as he turned to face the other four. “Alright, gang, let’s do this,” he said, then they split up amongst the shelves. 

For the first ten minutes or so, Ben was completely and utterly clueless as to what the hell he’d do for his costume, and he’d resorted to grabbing random black shit off of the walls and just hoping it would somehow form a costume. So far, he’d gathered a pirate’s shirt, black, faux leather pants, boots, and a black bandana, which he supposed made enough sense as a costume, but he wasn’t sure exactly what he’d call the ensemble he’d come up with. Was he a pirate? Some sort of vampire? He grabbed a sword and a leather belt, then walked around the shelf until he reached the medieval themed section of the store, where he found Rey bending down and looking at one of the royalty themed costumes curiously. 

“See anything you like, your highness?” he asked sarcastically, causing her to jump up and hit her head on the shelf in fright. “Sorry.”

Rey clutched her head as she stood up, the bagged costume still in her hand as she glared at Ben, though he could sense the intent behind it was lighthearted. “I liked it until you referred to me as ‘your highness.’” 

“No, don’t let me stop you, I think… I think you’d look good in that,” he admitted. That didn’t cross the friendship line, did it? Friends could tell each other things like that, couldn’t they? Ever since his drunken confession after the frat party, it had been growing harder and harder for him to tell just what constituted a platonic statement anymore. “It’d suit you.”

She shrugged. “I was thinking more along the lines of Wonder Woman, but I guess this could be fun.”

“Which one do you think you’ll go with, then?”

“Not sure,” she replied, then she let go of her head, and walked around the shelf to the superhero costumes, pulling a Wonder Woman corset and skirt from the shelf, then she gave him another wicked grin as she plucked a diadem and armband set from the row of accessories as well. “I’ll just get both and see what I’m feeling on Halloween.”

Ben’s breath hitched at the thought of her in that short, blue skirt, then he swallowed, trying to form the thoughts in his head into words. “Rey, those cost money.”

In response, she winked at him. “Ben, any chance to give you a heart attack is worth however much money I’ll be spending,” she said, then she walked over to the steampunk section, where Finn and Poe were taking turns trying on enormous, mechanical looking goggles. 

Ben’s jaw was slack as he watched her go, his heart hammering against his chest as he glanced at the costumes in his hand, and suddenly found himself struck with an idea. So Rey wanted to give him a heart attack? He chuckled as he walked over to join his friends,  _ as you wish, Rey,  _ he thought,  _ as you fucking wish.  _ It was as he’d thought earlier; two could play at that game. 

In the end, Ben wound up buying his ridiculous black ensemble, Rey followed through on buying both costumes, Poe wound up with a steampunk vampire vibe, Finn bought one of those giant inflatable dinosaur costumes, and Rose decided on a variation of a skeleton costume—one that included fishnets for some reason. They left the store ten minutes later chatting gleefully about their plans for the holiday, about their plans to go to a local haunted house, which would hopefully make up for the lack of trick or treating they’d be doing. 

“You think it’ll be lame?” Rey asked as she slung herself back down into Ben’s passenger seat. “Going to a haunted house?”

“Apparently it’s one of the scariest haunted houses in the state,” Poe replied, his bag crinkling loudly as he sat in the seat directly behind her, and this time, Finn slid into the center seat. “It better not be lame.”

Ben laughed, then waited patiently for Rose to join them in the car as well before he started the engine, and backed out of their parking spot before heading out onto the road. By that point, the sun had gone down, and he decided to roll down the windows letting the cool autumn air ripple through the car. A sense of calm washed over him, and he relaxed into the seat as the forest and the highway rolled past him, and despite the looming end of the semester— finals weren’t all that far from them now—he found himself completely at peace. 

“What are you thinking about?” Rey asked, her voice only just audible over the sound of the wind rushing past his ears. 

He wasn’t sure how to answer that. In truth, he was thinking about a lot of things; like the fact that he was fairly certain they’d wind up making use of the condoms that still burned a hole in his bag in mere days, or the fact that he was still in love with her and his feelings had only grown more intense… quite a lot actually. “Nothing much, just…” he looked into the rear view mirror to see Finn and Poe were already kissing like no one was watching in his back seat, and Rose was casually checking her phone.  _ Perfect _ . Ben grinned wolfishly as he casually snaked his hand over, and rested it on her lower thigh, gripping the steering wheel tightly with one hand. “Just thinking about how I was going to get revenge.”

Her breath caught in her throat as he slowly began to bring his hand up, his eyes drifting between the mercifully straight highway and the rearview mirror to see if Poe was looking at him. When it didn’t seem like Poe would stop sucking Finn’s face anytime soon, Ben felt a rush of adrenaline pulse through his system, and he began to slide the hem of Rey’s rather short skirt up her thigh. With the wind flapping loudly throughout the cabin of the car, he knew it would be very difficult for either Finn or Poe—who were already rather distracted anyways—to be able to hear them as he continued talking. “I was thinking you deserved some retaliation for that little thigh grab earlier…”

“Ben,” she said breathlessly as his fingers began to skim the inside of her thigh, drawing closer and closer to where he knew she wanted him most. “Ben, they’ll see.”

“Finn and Poe are too busy with each other and Rose is texting,” he replied, letting his foot off the accelerator as the car moved into a slight curve on the highway. “They can’t hear us over the wind.” His fingers brushed over the warmth of the innermost part of her thigh, where he’d tormented her weeks earlier just before he went down on her for the first time. 

She was shaking in the passenger seat next to him, her chest shuddering with each breath she took, and while he couldn’t hear it, he could certainly see it out of the corner of his eyes. 

They were starting to come out of the curve now, and Ben gripped the steering wheel tightly in one hand as his foot found its grip on the accelerator, and his fingers brushed over the apex of her thighs through her underwear. He waited a few more seconds until they came out of the curve entirely, then he sped up again as his thumb pressed down on her clit, circling it slowly, languidly a few times as she gasped beneath his touch. 

He glanced back up into the rearview mirror, where Finn and Poe were still lost in each other, but no longer kissing. This meant he likely didn’t have long before Poe would see his hand in Rey’s space and wonder what the hell he was doing. 

Still, he was hesitant to pull away, he could feel how wet she was through the cotton of her underwear, how wet  _ he  _ had made her, and he felt himself growing hard as his thumb continued its ministrations against her. The motivation to pull himself away came a few seconds later in the form of a reminder that he’d started doing this to torture her, and he intended to follow through on that. 

Before she could truly begin to enjoy herself, lose herself in the feeling of his hands on her, he pulled his hand away. He heard her groan loudly—certainly loudly enough to alert the three passengers in the backseat—as he returned his hand to the steering wheel, and he snickered quietly under his breath.  _ Tell me, Poe, would Saint Solo do  _ that _? _

“What’s wrong?” Finn asked, snapping himself away from Poe to see what had caused his friend to cry out like she had. 

Ben glanced over at Rey. “Yeah, Rey, what’s wrong?” he asked, his voice full of mischief. 

“Nothing!” she squeaked, though he could feel her glaring at him without having to look at her.  _ Excellent.  _

“You good, Rey?” Poe asked, and she squeaked out another affirmative before hurriedly changing the subject as Ben drove into the exit ramp off of the highway back to their university. 

Rose leaned forward against the back of Ben’s seat. “So, Rey, why’d you buy two costumes?” 

This time it was her turn to give a sly grin, one which he spotted when his eyes flickered briefly to hers. “Couldn’t make up my mind,” she said with a shrug. “I really liked them both, so I just went for it.”

“That’s a ballsy move for your bank account,” Poe replied. 

Rey continued to grin like a Cheshire Cat as Ben turned off of the exit ramp onto the main road leading back to school. “But worth it.”

Despite his recent victory over her, Ben still felt like he was going to have a stroke. How was it that she managed to have so much power over him even though he’d rendered her into putty in his hands just moments earlier? 

It took him a few seconds to get his breathing under control, and by that point the subject had moved on from the costumes to what they were going to do for Thanksgiving break, since Ben’s parents had offered to host Rey, Poe, and any other friends of theirs for the holiday dinner. Ben hadn’t wanted to think about Thanksgiving, and he’d been putting it off for weeks now as he remembered that with it came the end of the semester just two weeks later. With the end of the semester came the end of the bet, and the end of… 

He glanced over at Rey as they came upon the street their dorm’s building resided on, and felt an increasingly familiar sense of sorrow fill his veins at the thought of the bet’s end. Clearing his thoughts, he turned onto the street, and brought the car into the parking lot as his friends laughter filled his ears. Ben drove down into the depths of the lot until he found his parking spot, rolling up the car windows as he pulled into it, then he turned the key, and shut off the car. “Alright, let’s move out.”

Together they stumbled out onto the ground, and the four doors of Ben’s car slammed shut in almost perfect unison before they made their way out of the parking deck, and toward the building’s lobby. For the most part, they all fell quiet, as if Ben’s suddenly sour mood had fallen over all of them until they reached the elevator. 

“Did we even try these on?” Poe asked, gesturing to the costume bags in their hands, then they all laughed as they realized that they hadn’t. They’d been completely blind in their pickings, and they’d just have to pray that everything worked unless they wanted to take another trip out to the costume store to exchange things. 

“No, we didn’t,” Rose replied. “We kinda just…”

Ben snorted. “Grabbed them and went?”

“Yeah.”

He felt Rey’s hand pat his shoulder. “Looks like we’ll have to try them on when we get back to your place, then.”

“Whoa,” Finn protested, staring at Ben. “Who said we were going back to our place?”

He pointed casually to Rey. “She did,” he said just as the elevator doors opened on their floor, and the five of them wandered out onto the hall with Finn groaning sarcastically the entire walk to the dorm. Ben was grinning stupidly, brought out of his more somber mood by his friends’ antics as he slid his dorm key into the lock, and opened the door to allow them all access. 

Again, Poe clapped his hands together. “Alright everybody, it’s showtime,” he said, then he made a beeline for Finn’s bed, where he promptly began unpacking his costume supplies. The others quickly followed suit, with Finn and Poe taking over Finn’s bed, and Ben, Rey, and Rose taking over his futon. 

Ben pulled out the pieces of his costume, grinning wickedly as he took the bandanna in his hand, and brought it over to the desk that rested just at the foot of his lofted bed. He rummaged through his desk drawers for a whole, then he grinned broadly when he found a pair of scissors in the first drawer he opened. Snipping the scissors twice in the open air, Ben held up the fabric of his black bandana, and cut two eye holes into it before holding it up to his eyes to see if it would work. Satisfied with the job he’d done, he then moved on to his other things. 

Poe had already begun to strip and change into his costume then and there in the dorm’s common area, and as Ben looked over, he saw Rose blushing and Rey holding back a laugh as she shook out the princess gown from its time in the bag. “Do you have no shame?” the smaller woman asked, though she didn’t seem like she was genuinely upset at seeing Poe without his shirt. 

“I stopped having shame about midway through high school, babe,” he replied, blowing her a kiss. “If you don’t want to see it, we’ve got a bathroom you can change in instead.”

“I think I will,” Rose said, sticking her tongue out at him as she grabbed her costume from Ben’s futon, and strutted toward the bathroom. 

Ben watched her go, then he shrugged, and looked at Rey, his eyes meeting hers as smiles began to erupt on both of their faces, and they promptly burst into obnoxious laughter. “What about you?” He asked, reaching for the hem of his shirt, keeping his eyes locked on hers. “You have any shame?”

She shrugged, then gestured to Poe. “He’s already seen me naked,” she replied, then Poe howled with laughter as he brought his old fashioned shirt over his head, and Rey beamed at him as she reached for the zipper of her skirt. “So no, I have no shame.” 

Ben’s breathing shook as he watched her undo the zipper, then she let the faux-leather skirt fall to the floor in a heap before she reached for the hem of her shirt. At that precise moment, Ben recalled the game they’d seemingly been playing all day with one another, and he smirked as he took his shirt off with one, swift tug of his hand, then he quirked an eyebrow at her. 

The look in her eyes in response told him without her needing to say words that the game was on. She stepped out of her skirt, and proceeded to tear off her shirt in one smooth move as well, then she bent over to grab the dress of her princess costume. The way she bent, though made sure he was paying attention, since it made it look as though her breasts were threatening to fall out of her bra, and Ben—he was only human. 

Unfortunately, this did not excuse him from Poe’s knowing laughter, and a hand slammed down on his bare shoulder as his friend guffawed. “Look, Ben, I know you’ve never seen a girl naked before, but Jesus Christ,” he breathed, and Ben scowled at him, though it was only half sarcastic. 

If only Poe knew just exactly how naked he’d seen Rey, just how often he’d been seeing her in varying stages of undress lately. If only he fucking knew. 

Ben turned around, and proceeded to undo the button of his jeans while Rey pulled her gown over her head, and he watched, almost mesmerized as she pulled the gown until the crimson skirts fell loosely around her, scraping the floor. It was a cheap, polyester and crushed velvet dress that was a poor imitation of an elegant gown from a bygone era, and yet she looked absolutely stunning in it. His jaw didn’t quite drop open, but it was certainly slack as she reached down for the tiara that had come with it, and placed it on her head. 

Blinking a few times, Ben stared at her as he dropped his jeans to the floor, reaching around on the futon for the pants he’d snagged at the store earlier as she stepped back into the dorm’s minimal free space, and did a twirl. He and the other two men in the dorm shared a laugh as Rey spun until she made herself dizzy, and he shook his head as he put his legs through his leather pants. His eyes never left her as he grabbed the shirt off the couch, too, and threw that over his head before he secured it around his waist with the belt. 

He continued to pull together his costume as Rey danced around the room, addressing them mockingly as her subjects. As she danced, Rose came out of the room wearing a well-fitting skeletal dress and gloves befitting her costume, then she too joined the fit of laughter as Rey called her a peasant for being late. Ben was just tying the bandana around his head when she stopped, and considered the costumes of the other people in the room, her brows furrowed in concentration as she took in his. 

Giving her a smirk, Ben grabbed the sword he’d bought off of the futon, and brandished it like he was preparing to fence, then he gestured to his entire body. “Get it?”

She squinted at him, and Ben looked over at Finn, Poe, and Rose to see that the three of them were snickering already. They’d gotten it, the only person who hadn’t—out loud, at least—was Rey. “What the hell sort of emo shit is this, Ben?”

He scoffed. “Emo shit? I know you love  _ The Princess Bride _ , don’t try to pretend.”

It took her a few seconds, but eventually Rey’s eyes widened, and she walked forward, and prodded her finger into his sternum. “Wesley,” she breathed, then she looked him up and down. “Or better yet, the dread pirate Roberts.”

“As you wish,” he replied, then he chuckled as he heard her breathing hitch slightly. 

“Okay, it’s a great costume,” she said, patting him on the chest, then he thanked her as she stepped away, and the two of them turned to face their friends to find Finn and Rose staring at them impatiently and Poe just looking a little bit confused. 

Ben shrugged as he looked at them. “What?”

Finn just scratched his head through the odd fabric of his dinosaur costume, and looked at the ground. “You guys look great,” he said, changing the subject though the one he’d changed it from had never been spoken out loud. He then gestured to himself. “I don’t really know how to inflate this thing but, I’m sure I’ll figure it out.”

His boyfriend gave him a pat on the shoulder, then he sighed as he looked him up and down. “You can do it, babe, I believe in you.”

“Poe, you look absolutely ridiculous,” Rose said as she took in his costume, the odd mix of steampunk and vampirism working in harmony to create an utterly confusing vibe on Poe’s body. 

He pretended to inspect the frilled end of his sleeve. “At least I don’t look basic.”

Rose’s jaw fell slack as the others burst into heaps of laughter, and she strode over to Finn’s bed before grabbing his pillow, and beating Poe senseless with it as he doubled over from how hard he was laughing. Ben watched with amusement, not noticing Rey as she grabbed her bag, and walked into the bathroom while their other friend continued to slam the pillow into Poe’s arm. The attack went on for a good minute before she seemingly decided she’d had enough, and she finally set the pillow down. 

She gave Poe’s hair an intense ruffle as she pulled away from him. “You fucking asshole, Poe Dameron,” she breathed, but she was smiling brilliantly as she shook her head at him. 

“Eh, not all of us have a creative side, babe.”

“I’m a fucking English major, Poe, I’d fucking  _ hope  _ I have a creative side.”

Before Poe could respond, Rey’s voice interrupted them from the far side of the room. “If you’re all done bickering, would you mind telling me which costume is better?” Then four heads all snapped in the direction of the bathroom, and Ben’s stomach was suddenly full of butterflies. 

He’d had a feeling that the tiny blue skirt and the crimson corset were going to do things to him from the minute he saw them, but seeing them on a hanger and seeing them on Rey’s body were two completely different things. His mind went into overdrive as he took in the way the golden trim on the top of the corset flattered her chest, creating a small, but present amount of cleavage that gave him flashbacks to what was beneath the fabric. The skirt moved as she turned, revealing the barest hint of the swell of her ass as she spun around, and held up her arms. “Ta-da!” she cried, and Ben could already feel himself starting to have a stroke.

She looked every bit the powerful warrior that was Diana Prince in that outfit, and he didn’t think he had the biggest crush on Wonder Woman, but he certainly did now. The metallic arm guards and the diadem she wore only added to the effect that made her look completely bad ass, and combined with the black combat boots she wore, Ben had a hard time believing she was anything but a goddess come to Earth. “Holy shit,” he breathed involuntarily. 

Poe, as always, could be counted upon to be a complete asshole about his reaction. “Got a crush, Ben?” he asked with a chuckle. 

Ben glared at him. “I’ve got eyes, Dameron, she looks fantastic,” he replied, hoping the excuse would be enough to get Poe and his damn perceptiveness off his ass. 

Mercifully, Poe dropped the subject, though he still looked at Ben weirdly out of the corner of his eye before he examined Rey’s costume. “He’s right, though. You look fucking amazing, Rey, I think that’s the one.”

“It’s not too basic?” she teased, and Rose snorted at the response. 

“No, it’s perfect. That’s the one, but save that dress for another time, you looked good in that, too.”

“Agreed,” Finn replied as he began to remove himself from his dinosaur costume. “I think you should go with that one.”

Rey did another twirl, and Ben’s cheeks flushed red. “You think?”

“Definitely,” Rose said, crossing her skeletal looking arms. “That’s perfect on you.”

“It’s decided then,” Rey replied, putting her hands on her hips. “I’m going to be Wonder Woman for Halloween.” 

The room erupted in victorious shouts that could probably be heard from all the way down the hall, and briefly Ben wondered how anyone hadn’t called in a complaint on them. But he supposed that given how often he and Rey had been the cause of a lot of noise alone, he couldn’t be too surprised. Apparently no one on the fifth floor gave a fuck.

He leaned against a bed post as he watched the other four fawning over their costumes, and he silently reached up to remove the bandana from his head, letting his hair fall loose as he watched them. Or more specifically, he watched her as she fiddled with the diadem on her head, the corners of his mouth twitched as she threw her head back in a fit of giggles. His face grew further crimson as she looked over at him, her voice still teasing and threatening laughter as she asked, “Are you okay?”

Giving her a weak nod, he crossed his arms over his chest. “Never better,” he replied. 

She seemed satisfied with this answer, and immediately turned back to the group as they continued comparing their costumes and talking about how ridiculous Poe looked. Ben took in a deep breath as his thoughts continued to center around the way she looked in that god-damned outfit, and he groaned quietly. Haunted houses were actually fairly scary to him, but this year, he was absolutely certain that it wouldn’t be a bad prosthetic or an actor that was going to give him a heart attack. No, that role belonged to one person, and one person only, and she looked absolutely stunning in a superhero’s costume. 

  
One thing was certain for Ben, this would be a Halloween he would  _ never  _ forget. 


	8. Forty Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This got LONG but it's hopefully worth it, I promise.

In the end, they had a group of seven people going on the haunted house trip. Since Phasma’s car was bigger, she took the bulk of the people, taking Finn, Poe, and Hux with her while Ben took Rey and Rose, who sat shotgun and in the backseat respectively. 

The drive was a good half an hour, winding them around the mountains and onto the northern side of lake Naboo. It was the perfect length of time for Ben to turn on the radio, and loudly scream the lyrics to Toto’s Africa with his friends while they all wore ridiculous fucking costumes. The best part was Rey’s added harmony, carrying them into the chorus in a way that didn’t make them sound like out of tune trumpets as they belted out, “ _ I bless the rains down in Africa!”  _ at the tops of their lungs. 

Rose’s occasional lyric changes definitely threw them for a loop, though. The changes included, but were not limited to, “ _ I left my brains down in Africa,”  _ and “ _ I guess it rains down in Africa,” _ and each one made Ben and Rey laugh harder than the last. 

A stupid smile rose to his face as the song came to an end, and the DJ announced his next song to be Def Leppard’s  _ Rock of Ages _ , while Ben turned the volume down slightly so they could discuss their impromptu Africa cover. “You guys think we should start a band?” he asked sarcastically. 

Rose guffawed at the thought. “Yeah! I can’t do shit, though, so if you don’t mind, I’ll just play the triangle.”

Rey shook her head at the thought, creating a wave of motion with the curls she’d ironed into her hair before they left the dorm building—curls which Ben had already had far too many thoughts about running his hands through—then she sighed. “I don’t know what I’d be either, I can’t play anything,” she said, but she was actively beating out a drumbeat on his glove box, which made him rather nervous, since he’d moved the condoms from his backpack into there a few days prior.

“Nonsense,” Ben assured her. “You’ll be the lead singer, I’ll play guitar. And there we have it. A solid trio.”

“Yeah, right.”

Ben winked at her, then he drummed his hands on the steering wheel to the beat as they continued driving on down the highway. “So have either of you ever been here?”

“Nope, this is my first time,” Rose replied. “But the juniors in my calculus class said this place nearly made them shit their pants and most people wind up turning around before they get too far in, so…?”

That sounded promising, but it also sounded like a massive fucking  _ hell no.  _ Haunted houses were really something Ben tolerated more than he actually enjoyed. The only reason they were going out and doing this was because Halloween fell on an unfortunate Wednesday, and therefore they’d only been able to party last weekend—and it had been infinitely less amazing than the one from weeks prior, given that they had been wearing a lot more clothing—instead of properly on the holiday. It didn’t help that he and Rey somehow managed to both have tests the next day, thanks to a pair of dick bag professors he had no doubt hated them both.

A part of him wondered if they were doing it on purpose. Either way, he and Rey were taking the early car back, intending to leave earlier than everyone else did and not stick around for the trip they’d be taking to get fast food after. In all honesty, he would be perfectly fine if his GPA tanked. It’d be worth it if he actually got to have a decent fucking Halloween. 

“I can’t wait to see Ben shit his pants,” Rey said with a laugh, throwing her head back so it hit the seat. “Oh I know you frighten easily, too. This’ll be fun.”

Ben glared at her mockingly while Rose burst into a fit of giggles, then he shook his head as he focused his attention on the road, fully intent on not giving them a single hint of a reaction—not even the slightest hitch of a breath—when they walked into the haunted house. 

As the time passed, they drove over a curve that skimmed along the lake’s edge, or more accurately, it skimmed the short cliff that ran along the lake, allowing them a perfect view of the lake beneath the star covered sky. Well, it allowed Rey and Rose that view, at least. Ben had to keep his eyes on the road, though he fully intended to sneak a peek at the glistening, midnight blue water on the drive back. 

Eventually, they got off the highway, and the haunted house they’d been promise loomed ahead of them. The place was bigger than Ben had previously thought, with what must’ve been a three story exterior depicting an imitation of an ancient castle that stretched for what seemed like ages, though in reality it fit well within one city block. His jaw fell slack as he took it all in. At the front of the massive building there were various tall, daunting structures depicting monsters—most of which appeared to be animatronic, since he saw arms moving and glowing eyes blazing—and purple, orange, red, and green lights flashing all up and down its walls. The place looked promising for certain, but there was only so much that automatic robots could do to look menacing. 

As his friends reacted to the enormity of the haunted house, Ben pulled into the parking lot, grinning as he saw the familiar headlights of Phasma’s black van pull in behind him, and he held the expression as he turned into a space, and put the car into park before he cut off the engine. “Alright, let's do this,” he said as he opened his door, and instantly the sounds of the haunted house filled his ears. Howls and wails that were intended to be creepy only came across as comical as he stood up, and a wicked cackle filled the air as the monster—some odd sort of purple goblin thing—turned and twisted over the bridge that crossed the moat to the house. 

“This doesn’t look scary at all,” Rose grumbled as they poured out, adjusting the hem of her skeleton dress. “This looks like…”

“A joke?” Ben offered, and she quickly nodded. 

“Yeah, a joke.”

Rey shrugged as she walked up to the two of them, standing at Ben’s other side as she put her hands on her hips to stare up at it, looking every bit the superhero her costume portrayed as the light breeze shifted her hair back. “I don’t know, it has a reputation. Maybe it’s more frightening on the inside and this is just to… throw people off.”

“Or maybe people were just hyping it up to play a joke on the unassuming freshman,” Ben grumbled, then the back of Rey’s hand smacked the centerpiece of his leather belt, and he groaned at the impact. 

“Who knows?” Rey murmured softly, then she turned to her friends, and held out a hand to Ben as they heard doors to Phasma’s black monstrosity of a van open in the distance, then she quickly dropped it upon seeing Finn and Poe. “Come on, then, we better get moving if we want to see the whole thing before we go back to the library.”

“God, why would a professor schedule an exam for the day after Halloween?” Ben grumbled as she began to walk toward the house’s entrance, then he and Rose quickly followed suit, barely hearing their other friends’ cries to wait up. 

Rey fell silent as they walked across the moat, waiting patiently in the crowd, not bothering to say a damned word as they waited side by side, with Rose, and later, Finn, Poe, Phasma, and Hux.

The cool autumn breeze glided through his hair as they stood on the moat with the crowd that was a fair mix of college students and people both a little older and younger. At the far end of the moat was a ticket desk, and there was where people went to gain access to the house and all it’s hopefully frightening splendor. 

The line ahead of them was rather long, though they’d anticipated this when they’d made the plan to come out there, and mercifully decided to arrive closer to eight than ten when it was supposedly even more crowded. Still it made Ben worry for when they’d be leaving as he looked at the thick, loud gathering of people ahead of him. He’d studied for the test he had the next day, sure, but he still had been hoping to pull his typical all nighter before it happened. 

“You alright, Ben?” Rey asked, interrupting his anxiety fueled thoughts before they could run away from him. 

“What?”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah! Yeah, fine I’m…” He cleared his throat, and adjusted the belt strapped to his waist. “I’m good.”

It was then that Poe stepped forward, and clapped a hand on his back. “You sure you’re not just scared of what you’ll see in there?” he asked with a knowing grin on his face. It would seem that he, too had not forgotten that Ben was easily spooked, and like Rey and Rose, he fully intended to use that trait to his advantage. 

“Bite me, Poe,” Ben replied, then realizing the costume Poe was wearing—now complete with rather realistic looking fangs he’d ordered from a cosplay website—he froze. “Wait, actually, don’t.”

Poe threw his head back as he laughed, his mouth falling open to expose said realistic looking fangs as he patted Ben’s shoulder. “Ah, Solo, too innocent and pure for this world.”

Ben barely fought back the snort he felt building up inside of him in response. Sure, he still had one shred of his innocence left, but with the way things had been going lately and the amount of time left in the semester, he couldn’t imagine that lasting very long either. “Yeah, that’s me,” he mumbled, fiddling with the handle of his plastic sword as he spared a glance at Rey, whose cheeks had flushed red at Poe’s words. For some reason, a sense of pride filled him, and he couldn’t help the smirk that developed on his face as he turned away from Poe, and faced the front of the line. 

The group maintained a somewhat entertaining conversation as they drew closer and closer to the enormous haunted house, and by the time they reached the ticket counter, Ben had hardly even noticed how much time had passed as he gave one of the men running the counter his money. The man then put one of those cheap, neon orange carnival wristbands on his left wrist, then told him, “Just go in when you’re ready.” He thanked the worker, then he stepped off to the side to wait for his friends. 

Rey went after him, then Phasma, Finn, Hux, and Poe followed suit before the six of them headed off into the house to begin the night. 

“Who’s ready to see Ben cry?” Poe asked with a wicked laugh, then a chorus of people cried out their assent. If he weren’t already determined not to react to the house before, he certainly was now. 

“I’m not going to cry,” Ben assured them. 

Phasma scoffed, crossing her leather jacket covered arms—she and Hux had both gone as greasers—. “Yeah, right.”

“Phasma, you’ve known me for three months, there’s no way you can know whether or not I cry in haunted houses.”

“Oh, I don’t, I just really want to see it,” she replied, then she winked at Ben, and he rolled his eyes. 

“Do you guys really think I would actually cry in a haunted house?” he asked, glancing at all of his friends one by one. 

Rey and Rose were both just giggling, both Finn and Poe said “yes,” and Hux and Phasma just stared at him with grins on their faces before they began to lead the group toward the back of the lobby, weaving through the throngs of people congregated there to find the entrance to the main part of the house. 

They found it in the form of an open door way with fog coming out of it, and flickering strobe lights beyond a curtain of sheer, black, gauzy fabric, though he couldn’t hear a single ounce of noise coming from the other side, which was infinitely more menacing than the fake animatronics on the outer portion of the house.  _ Shit.  _ Perhaps there was something to the rumors that this place was genuinely scary. 

The group froze as they stood in front of the daunting looking entrance, and as Ben looked over at his friends, they seemed much more frightened than they’d assumed Ben would be. “Are you guys okay?” he asked almost mockingly. “You can hold my hand if you need to.”

A hand smacked him upside the head, though he couldn’t quite tell who it belonged to as a round of raucous laughter left him, and he nearly doubled over. “Fuck you, Ben,” Poe muttered beside him, sounding a lot less brave than he had a minute ago. 

Ben grinned. “I’ll go first if no one else will,” he said. 

Rey’s voice piped up instantly. “I’ll go with you,” she said, then she scratched the back of her head. “It’ll probably be less scary if we go together.”

“And you all thought  _ I  _ would be the one to be afraid,” Ben replied, then he looked at Rey, and gave her a nod before offering her his hand. “Shall we?”

She put her hand in his, and grinned up at him. “We shall.” The two of them then nodded at each other, and stride through the house’s main entrance without another moment’s hesitation. 

For the first twenty or so feet, Ben and Rey wandered down a hallway in complete silence and darkness—save for the occasional flickering of a light—feeling along the walls for some sense of where the hell to go. Behind them, he could faintly hear the voices of Hux and Phasma muttering about how lost they were, but other than that, everything was completely silent. At least, it was until suddenly, in perfect time with a flash of light, some sort of creature with glowing, beady eyes jumped out at them, growling as it landed perfectly on its feet in front of them. 

Rey screamed at the thing’s sudden appearance, her hand tightening its grip on his to a point where he pondered going to a doctor after this as she jumped from fright. Ben on the other hand didn’t even move an inch, which had him mentally cheering as they continued to make their way through the house. Perhaps his friends truly had been wrong about him, he seemed to be better at this than anyone thought. 

As they wandered through the house, though, his mind quickly changed on that matter. They walked into a room with blood covered walls and an operating table dead center; complete with a patient whose guts were hanging out of their body and everything. Maybe jump scares didn’t frighten Ben but the way the “patient” was thrashing certainly did, and this time it was him who clung desperately to Rey’s hand while she laughed at him. 

“You’re evil,” he muttered as they walked into the next room. 

She snickered as she bumped her shoulder into his arm. “So are you,” she said, then they continued their walk through the house of horrors. 

In the end, Ben screamed the least out of all of them, only crying out once when a hand suddenly slammed down on his shoulder in time with the sound of a chainsaw as they passed through one of the final rooms of the admittedly rather frightening haunted house. It certainly was living up to its reputation in Ben’s mind, and he found he was perfectly okay with that since every jumpscare had Rey clinging to him like he was her lifeline. It reminded him of his costume, of Wesley and Buttercup traveling through the fire swamp together as they passed through its various obstacles, only instead of dodging fire, they were dodging people in frightening costumes. 

By the time they walked back out on he other side and into the lobby, his heart was racing, and Rey was pressing a palm to her chest as she took in several deep breaths. “Are you okay?” he asked, trying not to laugh obnoxiously at how shell-shocked she was. 

She let go of his hand, and grabbed his wrist before placing his palm just above her breasts. “Do you fucking feel that?” Taking a few more heaving breaths, she laughed. “I don’t think it’s ever beat this fast.”

Ben’s own heart skipped a beat in his chest as he felt hers drumming out a beat to rival the world’s finest drummer against her sternum. “Jesus Christ, Rey,” he said with a laugh, then he removed his hand, and placed it over his, which somehow managed to be beating even faster than hers—though he suspected it had nothing to do with the frights they’d witnessed in the haunted house. “Mine’s… mine’s beating really fast, too.”

Rey quirked an eyebrow at him. “Let me see.” She then placed her palm over the center of his chest, and he heard her breath catch in her throat as she felt his heart racing within it. “Ben, that can’t be healthy.”

“I’m probably more scared than I thought.”

“I’d bet!” 

Another voice joined their conversation then. “What the fuck was that?” Phasma shouted as she and Hux also stumbled out of the exit. 

“Some fucked up shit,” Hux muttered in response as they approached Ben and Rey, who immediately stepped apart from each other as they faced their friends. “I have never been so scared in my life.”

“Neither have I,” the blonde replied, then she looked at Ben. “You seemed to be faring alright, though. What’s your secret?”

Ben shrugged. “Jump scares just don’t get me like they used to.”

Hux scoffed. “It shows. You don’t even look remotely frightened.”

“It wasn’t  _ that  _ scary.”

Before Hux could reply, Finn, Poe, and Rose stumbled out of the exit also clinging to one another in fright. “What the  _ fuck?! _ ” Poe shouted, his face paler than usual as his trio walked up to the other four, each of their faces thoroughly drained of color. 

“What’s the matter, Poe? You get scared?” Ben teased. 

“Fuck you, Ben.”

“I’m flattered, Poe, but you have a boyfriend.”

“Okay, fine fuck  _ off,  _ Ben,” Poe corrected himself, then the entire group burst into a fit of laughter. 

“That was actually a lot of fun, though, as scary as it was,” Rose said, and the others quickly nodded their assent. 

“We should definitely do it again, I don’t care if it’s  _ not  _ Halloween,” Finn replied, receiving a fair mix of yes’s and no’s in response. 

“I’d be down,” Ben said, then Rey smacked him in the gut again. 

When he turned to look at her, she was glaring at him, though the corners of her mouth were turned up in a hint of a smile. “Of course  _ you  _ would, you were the only one who wasn’t scared!” 

Grinning at her, Ben started to respond, when suddenly he heard the loud, familiar sound of his phone’s alarm going off in the pocket of his leather pants, and they both groaned. Due to the fact that they would both be forced to leave unfortunately early, he’d set an alarm to remind them that time was up, and at the time it seemed like a good idea—and it still was—but now it just felt like a massive buzzkill. They’d been having so much fun that night, and over the last half an hour as they wandered through the house, so to hear that alarm, that reminder that they had to get back to reality hit him with a wave of disappointment. 

He pulled the phone out of his pocket, and shut off the alarm as he looked at Rey. “Time to leave the ball, Cinderella,” he joked. 

Rey grimaced, then she sighed. “He’s right, we’ve got tests tomorrow. We’ve got to go.”

“Well, it was fun while it lasted,” Finn replied. 

Poe laughed, then he looked between Ben and Rey, and nodded. “I guess we’ll see you guys at home, huh?”

“Guess so,” Ben said, then he reached into his pocket again for his car keys, and glanced at Rey. “Ready to go?”

She gave him a nod. “Yeah, I guess so,” she replied, then she looked at their friends. “See you guys later.”

A chorus of goodbyes ensued as Ben said his own, then he led Rey through the crowd of people in the lobby and back out through the exit as they made their way into the parking lot. He felt relief wash over him as they finally left the crowd of people, and he reached up to remove his bandana with one hand before running his leather-gloved fingers through his hair as he felt the cool air hit his skin. “Oh, it’s so nice out here,” he said softly as they approached his car. 

Rey on the other hand was practically in her underwear, and as they separated to go around to their respective sides of the car, he noticed her shivering. “Easy for you to say, you’re fully clothed,” she grumbled, rubbing her hands up and down her arms as she waited for him to unlock the doors. “Mind turning up the heat when we get in there?”

Something about her phrasing quickly sent his mind to a very filthy place, but he forced himself to shake that out of his thoughts as he unlocked the doors, and they opened them at the same time. Rey was still shivering as he put the key in the ignition, and started the car. He muttered a quick apology to her as he reached over for the knob between them that would turn on the heating system, and seconds later the car began to fill with warm air, causing her to sigh contentedly beside him. 

“Thanks, Ben,” she breathed, and he swallowed nervously as her head fell back against the seat head again, exposing the skin of her neck, where she still had the faintest traces of a hickey that he’d given her a few nights earlier when they’d been in the library. They’d intended to study that night, truly they had, but Ben had been stressed and tension had built and well—they’d wound up between the shelves again instead. 

Clearing his throat, Ben focused his eyes on the front window of the car. “Yeah, no problem,” he replied, then he scratched his head again before he put his foot on the brake, and shifted the car into reverse. “Ready to go to hell?”

Rey giggled helplessly as he backed out of the parking space, shifting the gear into drive before they headed out of the parking lot, and onto the road for the long drive back to the university. 

Neither of them said much until about ten minutes into the drive, both of them likely too stressed about their upcoming exam to worry about anything else. Well, the exam was certainly one of Ben’s worries, the other being the fact that it had been two weeks since they’d made any progress together on the bet. He’d been fine with slowing down given what finishing the bet entailed, but as the time went on, and he’d gotten used to being with her in a sensual way, he had started to grow more eager for what was still to come. By the time that night rolled around, he was more than ready to take that next step, to finish what they’d started. 

Ben drove onto the stretch of road that overlooked the lake, which was largely abandoned as everyone was out either trick or treating or attending a party. They’d passed maybe two drivers on the road so far, and Ben hadn’t seen anyone on his tail either. He slowed down as they entered the curve over the lake, which glistened dimly as it reflected the light of the stars above. Making sure there was no one coming on the road first, Ben slowed to a crawl as he took in the sight, then he sat up straighter as he remembered something, and looked over at Rey. “You mind if we spend a few minutes here before we die?”

She chuckled softly. “Sure,” she said, then Ben sped up again, guiding them a few hundred more feet down the road until they drove up to a parking lot that overlooked the lake, which had been designed for this exact purpose. He pulled into it, and headed for the rear of the lot, which offered the widest, most open view of the starry night, then he put the car in park, and leaned back against his seat as he stared at it, letting out a deep breath. 

Beside him, Rey did the same, and he looked over at her to find her face had fallen into an emotion that was either sadness or fear. He couldn’t quite tell in the dim light from the dashboard buttons on his car. Without hesitating, Ben reached out, and took her hand in his, lacing their fingers together as she continued staring out the front window. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know,” she replied. “I think just… Now that the fun’s over, the stress is getting to me.” A groan left her lips as she pressed her other palm into her forehead. “And I have a headache.”

He ran his thumb over the back of her hand. “I think I can help with that,” he replied, then he pointed to the glove box with his free hand. “I’ve got some ibuprofen in there somewhere if you need it.”

What sounded like an involuntary moan left her lips, and Ben’s cheeks flushed red at the memories that sound stirred up as she let go of his hand, and moved to open the glove box. “I fucking love you, Ben.”

He knew she was just saying that because he’d helped her, but still the sound of those words--though he’d heard them a thousand times--sent him reeling as he closed his eyes from the joy that filled him at hearing them. This proved a fatal—or possibly wonderful—mistake, as he was so distracted in his own thoughts about loving Rey, that he forgot one very important detail about the contents of his glovebox, and therefore, he didn’t remember just what was in there until he heard her choke on her own breath. 

His eyes opened wide enough for them to pop out of his skull as he realized what she’d seen, and he looked over at her to see her mouth agape, and her gaze firmly locked onto the little box of trojans he’d bought with Phasma weeks earlier.  _ Fuck. _

“Rey, I…” he said, feeling himself start to shake as he stared down at the condoms. “I…”

“How long have you had these?” she asked, her words leaving her in a rush as she suddenly seemed as nervous—but in hindsight, it may have been excited— as he did. 

Swallowing anxiously, Ben answered her. “A few weeks. I… may have asked Phasma to help me out with the bet… and this… may- may have been how she found out.”

“Huh…” Rey breathed, then she looked over at him, and they stared at one another for a few seconds before she burst out laughing. “Ben, that’s fucking hilarious.”

He let out a few short bursts of laughter of his own, then he bit his lower lip, and sighed. “I… Rey… I don’t…”

“What, Ben?”

“I know you said we should slow down, and you were right.” He was actively trembling now, daunted by the prospect of asking her this. Suddenly the car felt a lot warmer than it actually was, and he knew he had to ask her before his courage left him. “But Rey, I’ve had time to think about this, I… I’m ready, if you are, to keep going. I want to do this… I want to do this with  _ you. _ ”

Her breath hitched, and at first he feared it was because he said the wrong thing, but then Rey leaned forward off of her seat, and reached up a hand to caress his cheek before she gave him a nod. “I’m ready, too,” she replied, her voice almost a whisper, then she reached down with her other hand, and unbuckled her seatbelt, letting it fly loose into the side of the seat. 

Ben forgot how to breathe as she brought her hand around to the base of his skull, her fingers gently stroking his hair as she began to pull his face toward hers, and his heart raced in his chest. As they drew closer and closer together, he closed his eyes, and continued to slowly meet her in the middle. Her breath ghosted his lips as they finally drew close enough together, but they paused at that point, just a hair’s breadth apart as the weight of this kiss settled into them before it even happened. 

They’d kissed countless times by now. He knew how she kissed, how her lips felt against his, how she tasted when his tongue would dart into her mouth, but he hadn’t quite kissed her like he was about to now. There hadn’t been quite the tension, the anticipation in the air like there was in that moment, and for a few seconds Ben let it build to its proper intensity before he finally let out a soft groan and closed the gap between them. 

This kiss was soft, yet passionate, a sort of tender and loving thing that sent heat coursing through his veins paired with spikes of adrenaline as he slipped a hand up to hold her waist while he kissed her. And despite the fact that they’d left early with the intent of rushing home to study for a test, Ben took his time, letting what must’ve been minutes go by before he deepened the kiss, leaning over her more as he parted her lips with his tongue, and she moaned softly as she reached for his shoulder, grabbing the fabric of his pirate’s shirt as she tried to pull his whole body even closer to her.

That, however, turned out to be a failed effort, as Ben’s too long legs were trapped beneath the steering wheel, and in the small, cramped space that was the front of the car, he hit his hip on said wheel as he tried to get out of the seat. This caused them to break apart from the kiss, and Rey cackled at him as he groaned from the pain that now shot throughout his entire body. 

“I’m glad you’re amused,” he muttered as she continued to laugh in her seat, and he shook his head at her, barely fighting back a smile as he thought through how to work around the problem of their limited space. It took him a second, but eventually his eyes landed on his front mirror, providing him a small view of his backseat, then he grinned as he was struck with an idea. 

“What are you thinking about?” Rey asked as she came down from her laughing fit. 

Ben turned, and looked at the backseat. It wasn’t exactly the most spacious of places, but he figured it would do the job for what he and Rey were planning, therefore, it was spacious  _ enough. _ “I think we ought to move back there.”

Her eyes followed his, then he saw her smile out of the corner of his eyes before she shrugged, and crawled over the space between them into the backseat, flopping herself down into the seat behind his before she reached forward, and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “You planning on joining me?”

Giving her one last, signature Solo smirk, he nodded, then he unbuckled his seatbelt, and got out of the car, knowing there was no way he’d be able to crawl over the seats like she had—his car wasn’t exactly the biggest thing ever after all— walking around to the other side, and opening the rear passenger door before he slid in beside her, and suddenly that sense of anticipation hung heavy in the air again. 

Ben could hear his heartbeat pounding in his ears as he shut the door, then the two of them shifted closer together, meeting in the middle as he wrapped one arm around her shoulder, and another around her waist, holding her close in the small space of the car. In the dim light, he could barely see her face, but he could sense her nervousness, her excitement in the small space between their faces, and he rubbed small circles into her ribcage with his thumb. “So this is it, huh?”

“This is it,” she replied, reaching up a hand to run her fingers through his hair again. “Did you ever think we’d end up here?”

“That’s kind of unspecific, Rey.”

“Shut up,” she replied, smacking his chest with her other hand, then she shook her head. “I just mean… I don’t know. In all these years I’ve known you, I’ve never thought…”

“We’d have sex in the backseat of my dad’s old car?”

“Well, yeah, when you put it like that,” she replied, then her voice softened as she leaned forward, and pressed her lips briefly to his forehead. “We used to get rides to kindergarten in this thing and now we’re… defiling it.”

He giggled at her phrasing, then he took in a deep breath, and he locked eyes with her. “But I’m more than happy to defile it,” he said, then he leaned forward to kiss her again, when she put a palm against his chest. 

“Ben are you sure? You don’t want to wait to do this with someone you’re actually in love with?”

_ I am absolutely in love with you, _ he thought, but he didn’t dare say it out loud as he wondered whether or not she actually felt the same way, then he reached up a hand, and began to stroke her hair gently, and her eyes fluttered shut as she leaned into his touch. “Rey, you’re my best friend, and…” He thought carefully on what he’d say next. “And I love you.” Breath shaking in his chest, his eyes wandered back up to hers. “I think that counts.”

She swallowed nervously, and he noticed that despite her past experience, she was trembling, too. “Ben…” she breathed, then he brought himself forward to touch his forehead to hers. 

“I’m okay,” he promised her, though he was shaking slightly as he said it. “I’ll be okay.”

Her hand caressed his cheek, and she sighed contentedly. “I love you, too. And if you’re alright with this, I think it definitely counts.”

“I am,” he promised her, then he leaned forward, and kissed her again, feeling her melt into his touch as they came together again. Kissing her felt electric, like he could do it forever and never stop, and despite having done it so many times now, he couldn’t shake how it felt like coming home when his lips were on hers, when her hands were in his hair and his arms were wrapped around her and they kissed for hours.  

Ben’s hand snaked around her waist, then, reaching for the strings of her corset as his lips caressed hers. He never broke the kiss, but the hand in her hair slid down to press against her shoulder for stability as he began to untie the strings with one hand. Truly, it was an impressive feat, and within thirty seconds, the laces had come untied, and he began to unthread them from the holes she’d laced them through when they’d all gotten ready earlier. 

She gasped into the kiss as his fingers began to skim her bare back the further up he unlaced the corset. He was fully aware that there was a zipper on the side that would likely free him from having to do all of that, but there was something about making her wait, and driving her crazy as he withheld her from the edge that made him lose his mind. So he continued working at the laces, waiting patiently for the moment when she would inevitably break their kiss to whisper his name in chastisement as he went. 

  
Somehow, Rey managed to make it until he was far enough up her back to know she hadn’t worn a bra with her corset before she finally gave in, and broke away from the kiss to murmur, “Ben,” into his ear. He snickered quietly, then he began to trail his kisses onto her neck, causing her to gasp against him as his fingers finally untied the strings of her top through the last of the loops. Bringing the string around in front of them, he pulled away from her so she could see the small, golden string hanging in between them from his fingers. 

“You’re such an asshole,” she told him, then she reached up a hand to slide the straps of the corset from her shoulders, then he placed one of his hands on top of hers, stopping her midway through. 

“No, let me,” he replied, then she nodded, and moved her hand aside to give his room to do the work for her. Hesitating a second, Ben’s fingertips trembled against her skin before he slowly began to slide the strap off of her shoulder, then he leaned down, and pressed kisses along the path his fingers followed, relishing in the soft little noises she made. 

Once he finished with that shoulder, he moved on to the other one, repeating his actions there as her own shaking fingers found their grip in his hair.  Somehow, despite the fact that she’d done this before, she was trembling just as much as he was, she was just as much of an absolute mess as him. A part of him dared to wonder if she shook for the same reason he did — was it possible that she loved him, too? When she said she loved him, did she also mean it in a deeper, more profound way? Was “I love you,” her “as you wish?”

Ben moved on from her shoulder, then he took her face in his hands, and looked her in the eyes before he kissed her again, and felt her reach up to slide the straps the remainder of the way off of her arms. He felt the corset fall to the ground at their feet, and he pulled away from their kiss to take in the vision of a topless Rey sitting in the backseat of his car, the stars illuminating her silhouette from the window behind her. Slowly, he slid one of his hands down from her face, and they began a slow, downward trail to her chest, when she suddenly reached up to stop him. 

“Not yet, you take off yours first,” she ordered him, and even in the far too dim light, he could see the glint of light that reflected off of her teeth as she gave him a sly grin. 

His chest shuddered with a chuckle, then he moved to take off the belt strapping his shirt to his waist, when she tightened her grip on his wrists, and shook her head. “Let me,” she replied. “I want to return the favor.”

Giving her a nod, he sat back against the seat while she moved her hands from his wrists, and for a moment he was confused, but then she shifted up, her head narrowly missing the roof of the car as she swung a leg over his so that she was straddling him. “Holy shit.”

Rey giggled softly, then she leaned down, and kissed him again as her hands moved down to undo his belt, unbuckling it faster than she had any right to before she let that join her corset on the ground. Her lips continued to caress his as she reached for the hem of this shirt, then she pulled away from him as her hand slipped just underneath it, her skin warm where it brushed against his, causing his breath to hitch. “Mind helping me?”

“As you wish,” he said, almost involuntarily, like she’d pulled it out of him. Her response was laughter as he reached down, and pulled off the shirt before throwing it over the driver’s seat, but he had to wonder if she recalled its meaning from the film, and thought that maybe, just maybe he meant it as more than just a reference to his costume. He wondered if she was perfectly okay with the meaning behind those words. 

Once his shirt was discarded, she was back on him immediately, her lips finding his as she settled her weight over him, the apex of her thighs brushing over the erection he’d slowly begun developing as the time had passed, causing him to jolt slightly from the contact. He moaned into the kiss as his arms wrapped around her bare waist, and his fingers began to race circles in the ridges of her spine as he poured his emotions into the way he kissed her, knowing full well by now that this was not how he was supposed to kiss a friend. No, this was how he kissed someone he  _ loved.  _

Ben began to trail his kisses down her neck, adjusting his grip on her as he moved down past her collarbone. She was still shaking in his arms as his lips found the top of her right breast, and he began to press kisses there, each one soft and sweet as he continued making his way down to her nipple. He didn’t need great lighting to see that they’d hardened despite the heat in the car, which made him struggle to breathe at the thought that he’d been the one to do that to her. It made him wonder the effect he’d managed to have between her legs as he took her nipple into his mouth, and sucked as she gripped his shoulders tightly, and cried out. 

She continued to gasp against him, her arms wrapping around his neck as his tongue darted out, swirling around her skin as she clung to him like a lifeline. “Ben,” she breathed, then just as he was smirking against her breast, she began to grind down onto his erection ever so slightly, but it was enough for him to certainly know what she was doing. 

Releasing her nipple from his mouth, Ben pressed his forehead against her shoulder as she began to intensify the ministrations of her hips. He gasped into her skin, his shaky hands gripping her back as she moved on top of him, already creating that feeling in his cock like he was building to something else. It took him several seconds to collect himself, and remember what he’d been doing to her before he took in a deep, shuddering breath, and he moved over to the breast he’d neglected earlier. 

The most quiet of swear words left Rey’s mouth as his began to plant kisses all over her left breast this time, her hands found their way into his hair as she held him tightly against her. Ben grinned against her skin as he reached one of his hands between them, and traced his fingers up the inside of her thigh until they met with the fabric of the black spanx shorts she was wearing under that tiny little skirt. He let out a soft groan as he took her other nipple into his mouth, and she gasped at the vibrations that caused against her as his fingers traced around the fabric of her thighs until they found her clit, then with just his thumb, he began to circle it in the way he’d learned days earlier would have her unable to think straight. 

Rey moaned under his touch the second his thumb came in contact with her, and as his other fingers brushed against the fabric of her shorts, he smiled again upon realizing that she was already wet. He pulled away from her again, though his fingers didn’t stop moving against her clit as he looked her in the eyes, and with his free hand, he released his grip on her back, and brushed a piece of her hair behind her ear. She was still wearing the diadem from her costume, and something about it made her look every bit the goddess she was portraying, even with half her costume gone. Rey stared down at him in concern, one of her hands moving forward to caress his cheek as she looked between his eyes. “What?” she asked softly, a short, sweet question that asked him about half a million others as she held him in her arms. 

“I… I just…” He didn’t know what to say to her then, he’d wanted to make some sort of comment about how satisfying it was to know she’d already been wet when he began to touch her, but he’d lost his nerve when he once again looked into her eyes. It was as if they ground him into reality, and the reality was that this wasn’t just their usual foreplay. They were going beyond anything they’d ever done together, this was the most intimate, personal moment of his life, and he had never been more nervous. “I’m just glad it’s you.”

“I wish mine had been you,” she whispered, then before he could comment on that statement, she looked down at where their lower halves were still fully clothed, and she sighed. “Mind helping me out of this skirt?”

What he wanted, more than anything, was to ask her what she meant behind the comment about wishing her first time had been with him. Unfortunately, he was a coward, and he simply faked a smile at her as his trembling fingers reached for the zipper of her skirt, briefly halting their assault above her shorts to remove the tiny blue skirt she’d worn that night. His fingers found their grip on the top of the zipper, then he looked her in the eyes again, and with his free hand, he reached up to caress the base of her skull, bringing their foreheads together as he smirked. “As you wish,” he mumbled again, then in one, swift downward motion, he undid the zipper all the way to the bottom, and tossed the small piece of faux-leather over the passenger seat. 

Before Rey could say anything to him in response, he brought his lips up to hers, meeting her in a searing kiss as he leaned against the backseat again, capturing her lips between his over and over until he needed air. She took the opportunity to begin assaulting his neck again as her hands reached down between them, and reached for the ties of his pants. His breath caught in his throat as her hand brushed over his erection, but he held back from saying a word as he let his arms resume their hold on her back, holding her closely against him as she worked at the laces of his black pants. 

“Rey,” he said breathlessly as she finished untying the laces, then he groaned when she rolled off of him, and sat down by his side in the backseat. One of her hands came up to rest itself on his heaving chest, reminding him of when they’d felt each other’s heartbeats for a completely different reason back at the haunted house. Ben forgot how to breathe for a moment as that hand began to slide down the planes of his abdomen, her eyes locked onto his the entire time as she reached for the fabric of his pants. 

Her fingers slipped beneath the fabric of not only his costume, but his boxers as well, and he gasped softly as she began to push them down. Regaining control of his thoughts, Ben lifted his hips, and helped her slide both of the remaining pieces of clothing over his hips, down his legs, and—to the tops of his boots. Both of them froze upon realizing he was still wearing them, then promptly burst out laughing, and Rey collapsed against his backseat as she clutched her aching gut from how hard she was laughing. 

Ben shook his head, though he too couldn’t hold back his laughter as he reached down and undid the zippers on his costume shoes, kicking them and his pants off to the side on the floor before he gestured to the spanx shorts and gladiator sandals she still wore. “Your turn,” he said between fits of laughter, then she smiled at him as she too kicked off her shoes, and surrendered her shorts to the passenger seat. 

But when she finished, instead of returning to him, she crawled back over into the passenger seat, and for the briefest millisecond he was confused, but then she brought out the condom box he’d bought weeks prior, and crawled back over to him with a grin on her face. “Can’t forget these.”

Another laugh left him as he took the box from her hands, then he began to open it, slipping his fingers between the folds of the cardboard, before he pulled them apart, and reached into the box for the first wrapper he could find. He pulled one out of the box, then he leaned forward, and placed it into the driver’s seat before he turned to her again. She was looking at him with that damn unreadable look in her eyes again, the one that made him wish he could read her mind and know if she loved him, too. 

“Ben, are you sure you want to do this?” she asked. 

He gave her an enthusiastic nod, then he gestured to the condom in his hand. “Rey, I’ve never been more scared or certain of anything in my life,” he promised her. “I told you, I want this, I want… I want  _ you _ .”

She let out a noise that sounded like a mixture of a laugh and a sob, then she moved forward, and pressed a brief kiss to his lips before she gave him a nod. “Okay, then.”

Ben’s fingers were shaking too much for him to open it with his hands, so he took the edge of the wrapper between his teeth, and tore it off before grabbing the lubricated condom from the remnants of the wrapper, and staring at it anxiously for a moment. He became thankful for Rey again a few seconds later when she again sensed his nervousness, and offered quietly to help him as she rested a gentle hand on his cheek. 

He gave her a nod, then he handed it to her, and she leaned over to kiss him again while her hand slid down from his face, and she gently took his cock in her grip. Ben tried not to jerk against her as she gave it a few experimental strokes, her fingers gliding over the tip as she continued to kiss him. He nearly lost himself in the feeling of the kiss as her hands began to slide the condom over his erection, and for once, he didn’t notice the sensations that caused as he focused all of his attentions on returning her kiss with just as much passion as she was giving him in the moments before they finally fell over that last precipice together.  

After a few more seconds, Rey broke the kiss, but smiled down at him as she resumed her earlier position, slinging one of her legs over both of his so that she was again straddling him. He watched with wide eyes as she settled herself over him, then she placed one hand on his chest, and the other began stroking his hair as she met his gaze. “Do you trust me?”

“With my life,” he replied, hoping she didn’t notice how his voice quivered with emotion as his arms resumed their hold around her waist. “Always.”

Breath catching in her chest, Rey nodded, then she leaned down, and captured his lips between hers again. Her kiss, despite what they were about to do, was so soft, slow, and gentle, he found himself sinking into it completely. His nerves all but left him as he returned her kiss, and even as her hand slid down from his chest, and took his cock into her grip again, he still felt completely at peace. Kissing her was like coming home, and home was a place of safety—it wasn’t somewhere he could ever be afraid. 

Letting go of his fear, Ben continued kissing her senseless as she rose over him slightly, positioning his cock beneath her entrance before she slowly began to lower herself onto him. He nearly broke the kiss as he moaned from the feeling of Rey sinking down onto him, sending his senses into overdrive as he clutched her tightly. In all they’d done before this, when she’d gone down on him, when she’d just taken him in her hand and stained his favorite t-shirt, or when it had just been his own hand, he’d never thought it could feel like  _ this.  _

She finally broke the kiss as she suddenly gasped against him, and for a moment, he was afraid he’d hurt her, and he moved to pull away when she once again put her hands on his shoulders, and shook her head. “I’m okay,” she promised him.

“I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“No,” she began stroking his hair again, and despite his concern he leaned into the touch. “God no, Ben, you… you’re perfect. I’ve just found my limit.”

_ You’re perfect.  _ The words echoed through his mind on a loop and he felt that lump in his throat forming again as he processed them, then he gave her a nod. “I… thanks, I guess.”

She snorted her laughter, then she pressed a kiss to his forehead as she began to move on top of him, riding him slowly, gently at first as she brought her lips back down to his. Ben’s heart raced in his chest as he moved with her to the best of his ability, thrusting very slightly up into her so that she wasn’t doing all the work, but not so much so that he accidentally knocked her head into the roof of the car. They were in a rather limited space, after all. 

Gasping into the kiss, Ben found it increasingly difficult to breathe as Rey began to pick up her pace, and the feeling that caused wasn’t something he’d ever heard about in stories, books, or movies. He had nothing to compare it to. The work of his own hand, which had satisfied him enough up until this point was going to be rendered utterly useless after knowing her like this. His words began to devolve into a series of incoherent swears, and at one point, after a particularly ridiculous utterance, she stopped moving above him, and they both collapsed into each other in fits of giggles as Rey laughed obscenely into his shoulder. There was an overwhelming sense of joy above all the pleasure, and Ben thought this was exactly how it always should be; him and her laughing their asses off without a lick of clothing on. 

They came down from their laughter, and though she was still smiling, Rey resumed moving on top of him, taking his cock inch by inch until she reached the limit she’d set earlier. She kissed him thoroughly as they jumped right back into the more passionate and intense side of it all, her hands combing through his hair, her nails raking down his back as she started to bring him closer to his climax, that feeling of pressure slowly coiling in his stomach as she fucked him into the backseat of his own car. 

“Ben, I’m close,” she warned him suddenly, pulling away from their kiss, but still keeping him wrapped more tightly in her arms. “ _ Fuck,  _ I’m close.”

“Then come,” he told her, pressing a kiss to the juncture of her neck and shoulder. “I’ll be right— _ fuck— _ behind you.”

She let out a small whimper, then she let him continue to pepper her neck with kisses as he reached a hand between them, and began to circle her clit with his thumb—which he’d learned rather quickly was one of her favorite things that he did—as she cried out against him, his name falling almost incoherently from her lips as he felt her come apart around him. 

Ben had thought that just being inside of her had been the best thing that had ever happened to him. He’d been so, delightfully wrong, and he was quickly realizing this as she came around his cock, which nearly pushed him over the edge as she continued—somehow—to ride him with a fervor he’d never seen in her before. Then just as she was starting to come down from her high, he felt it building up more intensely within him, and he realized suddenly that he too was now extremely close. “Rey, I’m—“

“Do it,” she told him breathlessly, still gasping for breath from her own orgasm. “Don’t be afraid.”

He cried out into her shoulder, his hands tightening their grip on her back as he told her one last, “As you wish,” then he gasped as he finally came undone, swearing loudly enough the whole lake could hear him. Rey continued to ride him—he really did not deserve her—throughout his orgasm, whispering encouragements into his ear as her hands softly stroked his hair, holding him to her as she rocked into him. 

It felt like an eternity of pure bliss passed as they came down from their highs, both of them panting hard as Ben’s vision slowly began to refocus and stop swimming around him. His chest was still heaving, and so was hers as his eyes finally focused on her unreadable face, making him wonder all over again what the emotion was behind it. He hoped it was a good one. 

Rey took several more deep breaths before she finally smiled down at him, giving him a few seconds to return her smile before she claimed his mouth in another kiss. Ben was still smiling something stupid into the kiss, but she didn’t seem to care. They were both too lost in each other to notice if the kiss was slightly awkward. 

After a few seconds, she pulled away, and slowly slid off of him, and he groaned at the loss of her on top of him, causing her to chuckle as he reached down, and removed the condom. A frown formed on his face as he realized he didn’t have anywhere to dispose of the damned thing. Unlike most functional people, Ben never thought to have a garbage bag in his car. He always cleaned it out after driving to avoid that problem, but he’d never had… used condoms in his car before. 

Rey immediately picked up on his dilemma, and she burst into laughter as she fell back against the seat, exposing the slight glimmer of reflective light off the sheen of sweat coating her chest as she stared at the now befuddled Ben and his condom. “Oh my god, Ben.”

“What the  _ fuck _ do I do with this, Rey?”

She only laughed harder, clutching her gut as she leaned forward, doubling over as she relished in his misery.  _ Cruel woman.  _

After a moment, Rey began to calm down, then thought for a moment. “Just…” she looked around, then she crawled forward, and reached for the glove box, offering him a fantastic view of her ass as she moved past him. His eyes remained transfixed on her until she moved back with a tissue box, and pulled out three of them before taking the condom from his hands, and wrapping it tightly within their confines. “There’s no garbage here and you’re the weirdo who doesn’t have a bag in here so this’ll have to do.”

Ben laughed as she set the tissues aside in a cup holder by his window, then he frowned as she froze looking outside said window. “Rey, what’s wrong? Is someone there?”

She shook her head, then she began to laugh as she reached up, and poked the window, which Ben realized had fogged over from their heavy breathing as they…  _ oh, dear god _ . Rey looked back at him with a wicked glint in her eyes, then she pressed her palm against the window and slid it down, creating an impression in the fog that looked exactly like the handprint from Titanic.

Ben laughed at her as she crawled back over to him, then he sighed. “So much for academics, right?”

Groaning loudly, she leaned her head on his shoulder, and reached for one of his hands, lacing her fingers with his. “I think this was  _ way  _ better than studying,” she said softly. “That was… that was brilliant.”

“You think?” he asked, his voice barely a whisper as he looked at her with hope in his eyes. 

“Yeah,” she replied, then she pressed a kiss onto his neck. “I can’t wait to keep knocking off more points now.”

Ben grinned in the dark, then he pulled away from her slightly, and lifted her chin with his spare hand. “What do you say we get dressed, and knock off a few more points on that futon?”

Rey leaned forward, her lips just barely ghosting over his as she said, “Who am I to refuse an offer of futons?” Then she let go of his hand, and began to gather the pieces of her costume. “Come on, then, we’ve got a futon to break.”

_ Well, I’d prefer not to break my futon, but if you insist. _

He sat back for a moment, feeling both elated and a bit sorrowful as she began to gather her clothes, and slowly put them back on piece by piece. As she lazily redid the laces on her corset, Ben remembered his trembling fingers undoing those laces. As she zipped up her skirt, he remembered unzipping that zipper with one, swift tug. 

As he began to reach for his own clothing and put it back on, he wondered if she was remembering the same things, if she felt as different, as changed as he did in the aftermath of what they’d done in the backseat. More importantly, he wondered if people who were just friends fucked like that, cause that didn’t just feel like fucking. What they’d done had been all consuming, had nearly brought tears to his eyes, and it had been so tender and gentle that he couldn’t put the word “casual,” to it if he tried.  

By the time he was fully dressed, he was so caught up in his own thoughts that when Rey spoke to him again, he jumped slightly, and chuckled at his own reaction. “Sorry, What?”

“Are you sure you’re alright, Ben?”

He gave her a nod. “I am,” he replied, then he looked out the windows. “We should get home.” 

“Agreed,” she said, then they both opened the doors, and stepped out of the car, the cool breeze washing over Ben’s skin, causing the fabric of his costume to flap in the wind as he moved to the driver’s side of the car. 

He looked over at Rey one last time, to find her already smiling as her disheveled curls caught the wind, and she opened the passenger side door. “Let’s go,” she said, then she slipped into the car. 

Ben took in a deep breath, then he looked up, thanking all the stars he saw above as they glittered in the night sky for the night he’d had, and at long last, he joined her in the car, and they headed home. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was so much fun to write. I dearly, dearly loved this, and it made me emotional. I nearly cried :D


	9. Forty One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOLY LORD. The response to the last chapter was OVERWHELMING AND I LOVED IT. Thank you all so much! I can't promise this one will have quite the same effect, but I'm sure we'll get back on that level eventually ;)

The drive back to their dorm was both peaceful and amongst the most intense experiences of Ben’s life. He spent the majority of it reflecting on what had just happened in his back seat, remembering how it had felt when she put her hands on him, when he’d been inside of her and they’d come crying out swears and each other’s names. But what he couldn’t help but think about over and over again was the fact that he had just lost his virginity. After nineteen years, one month, and eleven days, Ben Solo was no longer a virgin. 

He’d had sex. In the back of his car. With Rey. On Halloween… In costume. They were probably going to hell for that. Actually, they were probably going to hell for a lot of things. 

They were quiet for a few minutes after they left the parking lot, but every time Ben looked over at Rey, she was smiling as she looked out his window at the forest they passed on the highway. The sight of it had him sporting a grin of his own as they drove on into the night with a Fleetwood Mac song playing quietly in the background over the radio. 

“How do you feel?” Rey asked him after a while, then he glanced over at her, and saw that her smile had turned to worry. 

“What do you mean?”

“I… I’m not sure…”

“Rey, that was absolutely amazing,” Ben replied, gripping the steering wheel tightly with one hand as the other reached over for one of her hands, lacing their fingers together again. “Honestly. I didn’t think doing that would be anything other than horribly awkward, but… you somehow managed to make that… perfect.”

He would’ve sworn he heard her breath hitch, but he thought that must’ve been a figment of his imagination as they approached the exit that would take them off the highway. A few more seconds went by, and he started to worry that he’d said the wrong thing, when Rey cleared her throat. “I just… I wanted it to be good. You deserve the best, Ben.”

A smirk grew on his face, and he spared her a glance as he pulled onto the exit ramp. “I think I got it,” he told her, then she gave him a warm smile, and he couldn’t help but see in her eyes that maybe that previously unreadable expression was starting to become clearer to him, which filled him with a fear he’d never expected. 

He’d thought that the worst thing that could’ve happened to him would’ve been if Rey didn’t love him back, but he hadn’t quite prepared himself for what would happen if she did. What would happen if she did love him as well? Would they actually start a relationship? Did that mean they had a future together? One time in high school, he’d jokingly asked Rey to be the best man at his wedding, but if she loved him back he suspected she’d play a different role in that entirely. 

“Ben?”

“Yeah?”

“Are we still breaking the futon when we get back?”

“Hopefully not, but I’d love to repeat what just happened back there again, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Rey threw her head back, absolutely howling with laughter as Ben drove them closer and closer to their university. “Oh absolutely,” she replied, then the corners of Ben’s mouth twitched up in the hint of a smile, and he subtly pressed his foot down on the accelerator. 

Ten minutes later, his car was parked, the condom was disposed of in a dumpster, and he and Rey were once again alone in the elevator. The tension between them built anew as they stood patiently in wait for the damn thing to take them to the fifth floor. Well, they weren’t exactly standing, because Ben was holding Rey against the elevator wall, his hands pressed on either side of her as he looked down at her, as if she would be able to see in his eyes how much he loved her. 

As the elevator passed the second floor, Ben reached a hand down to caress her cheek, leaning forward so he was pressing his forehead against hers as they continued to rise higher and higher. Her breath ghosted over his lips, and he felt himself trembling anew as his thumb began to gently stroke her skin, not caring if he smudged the makeup she wore—he’d already smudged it irreparably during their love making. 

_ Love making.  _ Where had that come from? Oh, but it was the right word for it wasn’t it? Even if Rey didn’t love him romantically, she loved him as her best friend. What had happened in his car couldn’t be described as anything other than making love no matter how he looked at it, cause even without his own romantic feelings, he loved her as a friend, too. “I…” His voice was shaking still, and not trusting himself with how he’d finish that sentence, he leaned forward and captured her lips with his. 

Rey hummed into the kiss, wrapping her arms around his waist, her fingers gripping into the fabric of his cheap, costume shirt as she kissed him back. Ben let go of the grip he still had on the elevator with his one hand, and reached down intending to grab her waist, but accidentally reaching down too far and grabbing her upper thigh instead. 

She didn’t seem to mind at all, in fact, she responded enthusiastically, shifting her arms so that she was now wrapping them around his shoulders as she jumped up onto him, her legs wrapping around his hips. Somehow, she never managed to break the kiss, and she wound up only intensifying it as her hands found themselves at home in his hair, combing through it as she held herself to him with an iron grip. His own arms quickly came up to support her, one winding up under her ass while the other wrapped around her waist as he kissed her thoroughly like they hadn’t just made love in his backseat half an hour ago. 

A smile broke out on his face as she giggled against his lips, then quickly resumed kissing him as the elevator finally dinged its arrival on their floor. “You want me to put you down?” he asked.

Rey shook her head fervently. “No,” she replied, then she resumed kissing him as the doors opened, only to whine as he pulled away. 

“Rey, I need to see where I’m going.”

“No you don’t,” she muttered, like he didn’t one hundred percent need his vision to at least get them to the dorm in the first place, but she still relented… until she began to take her kisses down onto his neck. 

“ _ Reyyy _ ,” he groaned as he made his way out of the now open elevator doors, thankful that no one else was in the hallway as he made his way through it while trying desperately not to collapse from what the feeling of her lips on his neck was doing to him. He swore under his breath as she began to suck a mark into his skin when he was just a few feet from the dorm, nearly bringing him to his knees in the empty hallway. She was going to pay for that later, he decided. 

Trying to maintain some semblance of focus, Ben tightened his grip on her waist while his other hand reached around into his back pocket for his keys, but she didn’t seem to share the same concern as she removed herself from his neck, then began to instead press kisses to his jawline. By the time he got the keys into the lock, he was weak in the knees, ready to collapse at any second. His breathing was ragged as he pushed open the door, and walked them inside, kicking it closed with his foot before he immediately pinned her to the wall, and she caught the message, resuming her assault on his mouth as she captured him in a heart palpitation inducing kiss. 

Ben moaned as her tongue gained entrance into his mouth, then somewhere in the back of his mind, he remembered that they were at risk of being walked in on, and he reached over with his still free hand, and turned the door’s privacy lock, ensuring that no one would be able to walk in on them without knocking first. He then shoved his keys in his pocket, and focused his attention on Rey again, feeling his cock hardening again already in his pants as he began to grind into her against the wall. 

She broke the kiss to cry out against him as he held her tightly between his body and the plain, white painted wall. “Ben, you…  _ fuck. _ ”

“I can do that,” he replied cheekily, and she smacked the back of his head as he whirled them away from the wall suddenly, his hands firmly gripping the strings of her corset as he walked them over to the futon, and laid her down on it. Her gaze was intense as she stared at him while he crawled over her, his eyes never leaving hers as he settled on top of her, then they remained that way for a moment, taking in all they’d just done, and all they were about to do. 

She reached up a hand to brush a strand of his hair behind a large ear that had haunted him in his youth. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you,” she said quietly, though he couldn’t decipher the meaning behind it, he could only hope it was a good one. “You’re… you’re amazing.”

Ben swallowed as he looked down at her, breathing deeply as he again pressed his forehead against hers, ignoring the cold metal of her diadem as he tried to find the words to respond.  _ I love you, _ he wanted to say,  _ not just as my friend. I love you.  _ He wanted to scream it from the hills, but fear held him back in its iron grip, and he was more than content to just stay there holding her for eternity. “You are, too.”

“I’m glad we started this,” she admitted, then she laughed slightly. “I don’t think I ever had as much fun even just kissing before you. I mean you… No one’s ever made me laugh during sex before.”

“Is that supposed to happen?” 

“I think it should,” she said, then she sighed. “Just… thank you. For everything.”

He held her a little more tightly, then he gave her a nod. “I’d like to do it again,” he replied, his face slowly forming into a smirk, then she grinned up at him, and bit her bottom lip. 

Seeming slightly more nervous than she had before, Rey took in a deep breath. “Go ahead,” she told him, then he lowered his lips back to hers as one of his hands reached down for the zipper of her skirt, and he took his sweet time lowering it to the breaking point. He reached a hand around her hip, pulling them both up off the futon—and eliciting a sweet, sweet moan from her lips—as he yanked the skirt out from under them, and tossed it onto the floor by their side before setting them both back down into the futon. Rey’s hips ground up into his as she wrestled a leg out from under him, and wrapped it around his waist. 

He groaned as he began to thrust against her again, reminding him of the first time they’d done this, when they’d been shirtless in the dark on this very same futon and they came together for the first time. The memory that washed over him suddenly made him feel nostalgic as he kissed her, and he held onto her waist tightly as he began to descend his kisses down along the edge of her jaw, the ridges of her throat, and the hard planes of her collarbone on his way down as if he could hold her like this forever. 

This time, Ben didn’t bother removing her corset, she could keep it on for what he intended, and he thought she was just as beautiful with clothing on as she was without. Still her breath hitched as he planted a kiss in the valley of her breasts, then continued to plant them along the central line of her abdominal muscles as his hands slid down from her waist, and let his fingers find their grip beneath the line of her little spanx shorts. She lay still in anticipation beneath him, lifting her ass off the futon briefly as he slid them off of her. 

Like the first time they’d ever done such a thing together, he could feel her eyes on him,  watching him as he set the spanx shorts aside with her skirt before he resumed his position between her legs, and met her hazel eyes as he pressed kisses along the inner portions of one of her thighs. “You know,” she said, though her breathing shook between words. “I think you may actually be Saint Solo.”

“Oh?” He began to trail his kisses in the opposite direction from where she wanted him to go, then she reached down a hand, and buried it in his hair, stopping him before he could leave her further. 

“I just meant… you’re a saint in a different way than he thought,” she told him, chuckling as she smiled down at him. 

Ben gave her another smirk, then he began to bring his kisses closer to her inner thighs again, and she let out a shuddering breath as he drew even closer, and he had no doubt she could feel his warm breath on her skin as he finally reached the apex of her thighs. He then winked at her as he went down on her, his tongue instantly working into her entrance as she gasped beneath him, tightening her grip in his hair to a point where it almost hurt. 

A groan left his mouth against her as he continued his tongue’s ministrations, and in that moment he thought back to the first time he’d done that. He hadn’t realized he loved her yet. Back then, he’d suspected he might have a crush, that he might just like her as more than a friend, and he’d been awfully suspicious of their interactions being beyond platonic. 

Now he knew he loved her, and now he showed her just how much as he tasted her again, growing more familiar with her taste every time. His name tumbled from her lips as her breathing started to grow increasingly ragged, and as his tongue found its way up to her clit, her words became completely and utterly incoherent while she bucked slightly into him. 

Remembering something else that he’d learned she thoroughly enjoyed, Ben fought back a grin against her as he reached his fingers down, and skimmed one over her entrance ever so lightly, letting out a satisfied hum as he realized she was already wet. “ _ Fuck, Ben, _ ” she breathed as he began to pump one in and out of her, determined to make her come again, determined to see her face when she came. He hadn’t quite been able to earlier in the dark when she’d buried her head into his shoulder, and cried out for all the stars above to hear them. 

He could already sense the tension building within her as a faint sheen of sweat developed on her forehead, filling him with a sense of pride as the minutes passed, and he watched her slowly losing her grip on her control. He’d been right the first time they’d done this, he would never  _ ever _ grow tired of hearing his name like that from her lips. In fact, it probably aroused him more every time. 

After a while, Ben shifted tactics, closing his lips around her clit and sucking as he added another finger, pumping them both in and out of her as she writhed beneath him. “God, you have no right— _ fuck!” _

He pulled his mouth away from her briefly, still relishing in the taste of her on his lips as he grinned like a cheshire cat up at her. “Rey, I told you to call me Ben,” he said sarcastically, continuing to fuck her with his fingers as she groaned at his joke. 

“I’ll kill you,” she said breathlessly, then as his mouth descended on her clit once more, she cried out, and added, “First I’m going to come, then I’m going to absolutely  _ murder  _ you.”

His response was a subtle hum against her that had Rey clutching him tightly as more swears fell from her lips, which almost made him laugh even harder, but he managed to contain himself as he focused his attentions on making her do exactly what she’d promised. He stroked her a few more times with his tongue, and as he took her clit between his lips again, she shouted his name, and he felt her come beneath his mouth. 

As she came down from her high, he heard her mumble something completely unintelligible, and he finally released her from his mouth as he crawled back over her, keeping himself propped up on his arms. “What was that?”

Her eyes widened in response, and she swallowed dryly beneath him as she took in a deep, shaky, and slightly panicky breath. For a moment, she was rendered speechless by her own shock at whatever she’d just said, then she seemed to realize something, and her expression quickly shifted from shock and fear to pure mischief. “I believe I promised to kill you when I finished,” she told him. 

“I think you did.”

“You’re going to die.”

“If it’s you that’s killing me, I think it’s worth it.”

Rey threw her head back in laughter, smiling brilliantly up at him as she cupped his face in her hands, and pulled him down to her, attempting to kiss him to the best of her ability as she audibly fought back more giggles, then she twisted her hip, and turned them over. Ben found himself laughing right along with her as she began to pin him against the futon, wrestling him playfully like she’d done weeks earlier when they’d first hooked up, like she’d done since they were kids. Only now they were both adults, he was in love with her, and she was half naked. 

Small, but nimble fingers wrapped around his wrists, holding them captive against his own futon as she glared teasingly down at him. “What did I tell you about making jokes like that, you absolute ass?”

“Rey, if you would quit calling me God, I wouldn’t have to remind you to call you Ben,” he replied, then he absolutely cackled as she reached next to him, and grabbed the futon’s pillow, smacking him with it relentlessly. He put his hands up to fend off the attack, but it was completely useless, she had all the power now. 

“You are so  _ dead,  _ Ben Solo!”

“I thought I was God,” he replied, knowing full well he might actually die from saying that, but the look on her face as she stopped hitting him with the pillow for a moment was absolutely priceless, and it allowed him just enough time to turn the situation on its head so that she was now the one pinned underneath him. 

Both of them panted heavily as Ben’s weight settled over her again, and he felt the cool, faux-leather of her top against his skin as he stared down at her, those hazel eyes looking up at him with the same look she’d given him in the car after they made love. Several seconds passed, though it might’ve been an eternity for all he knew as he stared into her, as if he could read her mind through those irises. After a moment, he gave up, shaking his head as he gave into his mind’s desire to  _ know.  _ “What does it mean?”

“What?”

“When you look at me like that… I—I can’t read you when you get that look in your eyes.”

“Well, you shouldn’t be able to read me, I’m not a book,” she reminded him sarcastically, though there was now a hint of nervousness in her voice as she avoided eye contact with him. 

Ben scoffed. “Rey, we both know that’s not what I meant,” he protested, then he sighed. “Why are you— _ fuck!” _

His small interrogation was cut off abruptly, beautifully, by Rey suddenly grinding against his fully clothed erection with a sly grin on her face. A part of him registered that she was definitely avoiding the subject, but that smaller part was being quickly overshadowed by his libido, by his yearning to touch her again like he had in his car. “That’s not fair.”

“Life’s not fair, princess, anyone who says differently is selling you something.”

“That’s not quite how it goes, but I appreciate the— _ shit— _ reference,” Ben muttered as he began to thrust against her in kind, pressing his lips briefly to her forehead as he continued their conversation. “Rey, we definitely don’t have time for this. The others will be back in like ten minutes.”

She only ground against him harder, and he cried out as she released her wrist from his grip, and gripped the back of his head, pulling him down just an inch from her lips. “We’ll just have to be quick, then. Hope you brought another condom.”

A moan left him as she continued to writhe beneath him, and he nodded. “Of course I did, I promised to help you break this futon.”

Another wicked flash of brilliant, white teeth. “Excellent.”

“But, Rey?”

She began to press kisses to his jawline. “Hmm?”

“Please don’t actually break my futon.”

“No promises,” she replied, then she freed her other hand, and brought his lips to hers as she reached down for the zipper of his pants.

Somehow, miraculously, no one banged loudly on the door for another half an hour, three position changes, and a slight act of voyeurism—in which he’d simply sat back and watched her touch herself, which had driven him absolutely insane—later. He was fairly certain that in that half hour alone, they’d managed to knock off at least three more points on the test, and he almost dreaded to look at his score again after that. 

On the bright side, though, his futon hadn’t been broken. It had certainly groaned and creaked in protest as he thrust into her, but it was still in one piece. 

It wasn’t until he’d finally pulled out of her, and slid their second condom of the night off of his cock—this one made it into a trash can, the bottom specifically,  _ immediately _ —that someone finally had the audacity to notice that the privacy lock was on and they couldn’t get into the door. “Let us in!” Rose’s voice sounded angrily, causing Ben to groan as he unwrapped himself from Rey, wanting nothing more than to hold her in the aftermath of their second—though it honestly felt like more—time of the night. 

“Put your clothes on,” he told her hurriedly as he made for his closet to find normal clothes, then she gestured to the costume, which was her only option for clothing in the room. 

“Ben, this is the only outfit I have,” she hissed, grabbing the blanket he kept on the futon in desperation to cover herself.  _ Shit.  _

She was right. She didn’t exactly have any other clothing and their friends—including Finn and Rose—would be expecting them to have changed out of their costumes by now. He dreaded to think what Poe would do if he saw them. He could always give her a piece of his own clothing, but he felt like that would be too obvious—until he remembered the one time it had worked. 

Thinking fast, he turned to Rey. “Put on your shorts, I have a plan,” he told her, and she didn’t bother questioning him as she grabbed the little black shorts up off the floor, and began to slide her feet through the leg holes before she shoved both of their costumes under the futon. He gave her an approving nod, then he looked over at his front door. “Just a minute!” he shouted, then he quickly grabbed the hoodie he’d let her borrow the night of the frat party, and tossed it in her direction, ordering her to zip it up as quickly as she could before he told her the next part of the plan. “Now lie down, cover yourself up, and pretend to sleep.”

“I don’t think I’ll have to pretend much,” she said, stretching her arms over her head with a yawn. “You wore me out.”

Ben’s heart pounded unhealthily fast within his chest, but he didn’t say anything else in response to that as he grabbed clothes of his own, not bothering to put on any sort of underwear beneath his jeans—which was sort of uncomfortable, but he didn’t have a lot of time on his hands— as he threw them on, following the outfit with a blue and white flannel that he buttoned up enough to hopefully conceal the mark she’d left on him in the elevator. He did everything short of popping the collar like a nineties boy band douche to cover himself, then he reached down into his backpack, and grabbed the notebook he’d been using to study, splaying it and various papers over Rey’s blanket covered body. 

Once he finished his work, he looked over at her faux-sleeping form, and the sight of her sent that familiar feeling of adoration and love coursing through his veins. He moved like a man possessed as he bent over her, and pressed an absolutely necessary kiss to her temple before he finally walked over to the door—stopping in the bathroom briefly to smooth down his rather unfortunate sex hair—and opened it to reveal the usual suspects on the other side—still in costume. “Hey, sorry, Rey’s… sleeping and I was trying to figure out… how to move her without waking her up…”

Finn and Rose blinked at him suspiciously, but they just shrugged in response before walking into the dorm. In all likelihood, those two knew for certain what had happened between them, or at least had some idea, but they certainly weren’t going to call him out in front of Poe. 

Poe on the other hand was fully suspicious, and Ben’s heart stopped in his chest as his friend gave him a full onceover before he decided Ben met his standards for whatever he was thinking, then he too gave a shrug, and walked past him into the dorm. Still feeling like he’d had his mind read, he closed the door behind him, and followed the other three inside. “Oh shit, you weren’t kidding,” Finn whispered as he took in the sight of sleeping Rey. “She’s out isn’t she?”

Ben gave him a nod. “Yeah, chemistry takes a toll on her.”

“I thought she was studying biology.”

A blush crept up on Ben’s cheeks.  _ Technically she had, just specifically the anatomy branch.  _ “Yeah, that too.”

An awkward silence fell over the room for a moment before it was interrupted by Rose’s yawn. “I’m a bit tired guys,” she said softly, yawning again into her hand in earnest. “Anyone mind walking me back to my dorm?”

“I’ll do it,” Poe offered, putting a hand up as he walked over to stand beside her. “I’ve gotta head home anyway, sorry, babe,” he added when Finn gave him a look of betrayal. 

Finn shook his head as he walked forward, his dinosaur costume mostly tied around his waist as he grabbed hold of Poe’s hand, then pulled him in for a quick, but passionate kiss. “You better come back tomorrow,” he said against his boyfriend’s lips. 

Poe’s hooded eyes met Finn’s as he reached up a hand to caress his cheek. “I’ll be here first thing,” he promised, his voice just barely a whisper as he kissed him again, and Ben felt his cheeks flush as he looked away, finding Rey had turned to sneak a peek at what was going on in their common area. 

His eyes met Rey’s then, and he couldn’t help but notice she was also blushing as she quickly looked away, and as he looked at Finn and Poe, he couldn’t help but wish that was him. Not that it was him kissing Finn or Poe, of course, but that it was him and Rey promising each other their days in that exact same loving and tender way. Already he missed her when she was gone and he’d kissed her more times than he knew to count, but they still weren’t quite in an official relationship. Oh, how he wanted them to be. He really, really wanted them to be. After a moment, Rey went back to pretending to sleep, leaving him completely alone with his thoughts. 

He barely even noticed when Finn and Poe pulled apart, and the latter of the two led Rose out of the dorm, shouting good night as the door slammed shut behind them. It wasn’t until Finn turned around with his hands on his hips, and stared at him and Rey. “You guys didn’t study for a  _ minute _ , did you?”

There was a quiet little snicker from the futon as Rey sat up, keeping the blankets carefully wrapped around her waist as she stretched from her faked cat nap. “No, not at all, we’re totally fucked.”

_ More like we totally fucked. _

“What did you do, then?” Finn asked, then Ben blinked at him as he thought through exactly how to answer that question. 

He glanced back at Rey, who was already blushing, a soft smile developing from her lips as she ran her fingers lazily through her own hair. “We didn’t quite make it back here after the haunted house,” she admitted, then she looked up at Ben. “I think you should tell him.”

Finn’s jaw dropped like he knew exactly what they were trying to say without actually saying it. Still he clasped his hands together excitedly, then he jumped up onto his bed, swinging his legs over the edge. “Tell me what?” 

Ben gave Rey one last smile before he turned to Finn, and gestured casually to himself. “I am no longer a virgin. Officially.”

His roommate let out an excited scream as he collapsed onto the bed, his hands covering his face for a few seconds. Ben took the time this gave him to rejoin Rey on the futon, crawling in on the side closest to the wall—which made her groan as she was forced to move over to avoid getting completely crushed—before he wrapped an arm around her waist again. She sighed as the weight of his limb settled over her, but before she could turn into him, Finn was sitting up and at attention, clearing his throat. “Okay, Okay, I’m cool, now you have to tell me  _ everything _ . Wait—not everything—but I definitely want to know a few things like—how, when, where, and why?”

Ben looked at Rey, his thumb beginning to trace little circles in the fabric of his hoodie as he shrugged. “You want to start or should I?”

“I mean… we were driving home, and this one…” she pointed to Ben. “Wanted to go stargazing so we pulled off into that parking lot—and we just did it in the backseat,” she said, her eyes finding his as she spoke, a fondness in her voice at the memory, which told him it had been just as amazing for her as it had been for him. And maybe she didn’t love him the same way he loved her, but at least he knew she would also have that memory forever imprinted upon her brain. 

“Holy shit?” Finn squeaked. 

His reaction caused Ben to chuckle as he added. “Then we drove back here… and did it again.”

“On the futon!” Rey chirped, and he nodded his assent while also noting mentally how adorable her enthusiasm was—and ignoring how badly it made him want to kiss her like Finn wasn’t in the room. 

“Yeah, on the futon.”

Finn grimaced slightly as he looked at the futon. “Remind me to never sit there again,” he said, then all three of them burst into fits of laughter, clutching their guts as they took in the ridiculousness of it all. 

“Anyway, if you don’t mind, we should probably start to actually study so we don’t die completely,” he told Finn. Then Rey groaned in protest as she suddenly turned, and buried herself into Ben’s chest. “Rey, we have to.”

“No.”

“Rey, I’m sorry we can’t have sex all night.”

“I assure you we can,” she said, her voice tinged with laughter as she clung to him. 

“Finn’s in here,” he replied, but she only gripped his t-shirt tighter as she looked up at him. 

“Finn can leave.”

“Excuse you, I’m staying put. I’m tired,” Finn protested, glaring mockingly at Rey as he stood up off of the bed, and kicked off the rest of his dinosaur costume to reveal the Pink Floyd t-shirt and sweatpants he was wearing underneath. “You two can either study, or go kick Rose out.”

“I like that plan,” Rey replied, then she reached up a hand to grip the back of his neck, only to groan when he sat up, and reached for their notebooks. 

“Sorry, we need at least Cs to get degrees.”

“You’re terrible,” she whined, but she pushed herself into a sitting position, and grabbed her notebook from his hand. “And I’ll get you back for this later.”

Ben grinned, then he relented slightly as he reached up a hand, caressing her cheek as he brought his lips gently to hers, kissing her as softly and kindly as he could in a sort of apology for prioritizing academics. The kiss seemed to make her forgive him instantly as she melted against him, wrapping her free arm around his shoulders as she returned his kiss to assure him she was okay with it. 

They kissed for what was likely several seconds longer than they should have, and after a while, Finn cleared his throat, and they broke apart instantly with flushed cheeks. “Uh, I’m still here, guys,” he reminded them, then as they muttered their apologies, he frowned. “I didn’t think you had to do  _ that  _ for the bet, it’s not like you’re earning points.”

_ I’m not I just like doing it.  _

Still, he felt thoroughly called out by his roommate for his slightly too passionate kiss with Rey, and a crimson blush filled his cheeks as he shrugged and changed the subject to their studies, starting them on an actual conversation about biology. As Rey began to read some of her notes out loud, Ben looked over at Finn to find the other boy was already staring at him suspiciously, like he was putting together the pieces of a puzzle. 

Ben swallowed as he turned his attention back to Rey and their work, knowing he’d eventually have to be confronted by Finn about what he’d seen. Already, he was dreading that encounter. 

The next morning started off fairly simply. He and Rey finished their studying, and headed off to their classrooms. On their way to their tests, he pulled them aside, and reached into his backpack. "Come here," he said, dragging them by their building's nearest wall. 

"What are you doing, Ben?" Rey hissed, but she didn't hesitate to follow him as he pulled sharpies from his backpack, and handed one to her.

"Committed an act of vandalism," he said, then they both drew little hearts on the side of the building in the sharpie markers in order to mark off the vandalism point. He could only hope there weren’t cameras watching them since they’d been in too much of a rush to check beforehand.

After the test—which Ben was certain he’d gotten a C on—he headed straight for his dorm, intent on taking the world’s longest nap--since between the previous night’s shenanigans with Rey and the late studying, he was exhausted--but his plans were foiled the instant he walked through the door to find Rose, Finn, and Phasma all staring up at him expectantly. He couldn’t help but notice that  _ none  _ of them were sitting on the futon. “Hi, guys,” he said, confusion lacing his voice as he set his things down by the futon, and flopped down onto it. “What’s going on?”

“Look, Ben, I don’t know how to say this, but…” Finn sighed. “What’s going on with you and Rey?”

“We’re completing the bet?”

“Beyond that. I can see the way you look at her, the way you kiss her when you definitely don’t have to.”

“What he’s asking is,” Phasma interrupted, crossing her arms over her chest. “Are you in an actual relationship with Rey?”

_ Fuck. _ He hadn’t quite been expecting that, though he certainly wished it was the truth. The actual truth was much harder for him to grasp, and he only remembered admitting it through alcohol soaked tears as she lay beside him on the very futon he was currently sitting on. Ben took in a shuddering breath, his fingers lacing together in his lap as he shook his head. “No. No, I’m not. We’re just…”

“Just?” Rose asked, then Finn rested a hand on her arm as he waited patiently for Ben to finish his sentence. 

When Ben never said anything, Finn stepped forward, and winced as he sat down beside him on the futon. “What’s going on, Ben? Is everything okay?”

Ben felt a lump rising in his throat all over again. Admitting her loved her when she was unconscious had been one thing, but admitting it in this room of very much awake mutual friends was another entirely. It was forcing him to look the reality of his situation dead in the eyes, and admit what he really felt for his best friend to his other friends. He took in a deep breath. “Everything’s fine, I just…  _ fuck. _ ”

Phasma frowned as she walked over to the futon, and sat down, placing a gentle hand on Ben’s knee. “What is it, Ben?”

Taking in another breath, he closed his eyes, and let it out. “I’m in love with her. I’m genuinely, romantically, in love with her, and I have no idea if she feels the same way, and I’m terrified of what will happen if she does.”

“Oh my god,” Rose breathed, leaning against Finn’s bed. “That’s…”

“Both exactly what I was expecting and not what I was expecting at all,” Finn finished for her, then he whistled. “Damn, Ben. I could tell something else was going on, but… I didn’t know…”

“It’s fine, I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“But you should, cause, you need to tell her about this.”

“I don’t know, if she doesn’t feel the same way, then I’m just making things awkward,” Ben said, shaking his head as he looked down at the ground. “I… I just don’t know, it’s better if I stay quiet about it until the bet runs its course.”

A moment of silence fell over the group, and he looked up to see the other three having a quiet, nonverbal conversation with their eyes. “What?” he asked. 

Phasma cleared her throat. “Finn mentioned you had sex in your car last night, could you… describe it in non-explicit terms, please? Tell us what it was like.”

“What we did in my car last night?” She nodded, encouraging him to go on, then he leaned back against the futon, letting his memories take hold. “She… she took me into the backseat, and she was holding me and… she told me not to be afraid, she asked me if I wanted to wait until I did this with someone I loved and I told her at least platonically I loved her, and that counted enough.”

_ “I think that counts.” _

“Did she say it back?”

“Yeah, she did. She told me she loved me and trusted me, and… she said she wished I’d been her first. We hadn’t even taken off all of our clothes yet.”

Three pairs of eyes widened. “She said  _ what? _ ” Finn asked. 

“She said she wished I’d been her first.”

Again, the group was stunned into silence, then Phasma patted his knee and spoke up. “Ben, what happened next?”

“Well, we… I don’t know how to describe it, but it was the most intense, amazing moment of my life. I could have literally anything else happen to me after that, but it will never come close to last night.” 

_ “Do you trust me?” _

_ “With my life, always.” _

He looked down at his hands, which were now shaking in his lap, much like they had been the night before. “I was trembling the entire time.”

_ “You’re perfect.” _

_ “Don’t be afraid.” _

“Did you hold each other after?” Phasma asked. 

“Kind of, we were sort of preoccupied with… disposing of the condom,” he said, earning a laugh from his friends as the tension in the room settled. “That was the hardest I think I’ve laughed in ages.”

The three of them were smiling warmly at him as he sat up, and took in another breath. “I just… I don’t know if I’m ready for what will happen if she does or doesn’t feel the same way. Right now we’re just… we’re in a good place.”

“You could be in a great place,” Phasma muttered quietly, then Ben looked up, and swallowed nervously. 

“I don’t know if she wants to be.”

“We can find out.”

“Sure, but just… don’t tell her what I told you, okay?”

Phasma wrapped an arm around his shoulders, and pulled him toward her before ruffling his hair with her other hand. “You’re killing me, kid.”

“So you really love her, huh?” Rose asked, fiddling with the ties of Ben’s shoes. 

He stared off wistfully at the opposite wall. “Yeah, yeah, I do,” he said, then he fell back against the futon again, taking Phasma with him in a heap of giggles as he added, “I’m a dead man.”

“No, you’re not, your life’s just starting, Solo,” Phas told him quietly. “You’re in love, so enjoy it, even if you never tell her.”

“Agreed, the last few months with Poe?” Finn asked, then he smiled dreamily as he, too stared off into space. “I don’t know, man, things have just been… better, and I don’t know if it’s the kind of love you’re feeling. I don’t know if he’s the end all be all for me, but we’ve got something, and it’s… it’s like magic.”

_ Magic. _ Ben wanted to feel that, hell, he  _ did _ feel that with Rey. Every single time they were together, from the moment they’d started out as friends on little kiddie playsets, they’d been magic together. Something about him and Rey just clicked, like no matter what the circumstances were, he was always meant to be at her side, and she was meant to be at his.  _ Always.  _

“Look, you guys can talk to Rey, but don’t tell me what she says either way. I want us to do this on our own terms. Agreed?”

A chorus of yesses filled the room, then Ben felt himself relax again into the futon before he slowly wriggled out of Finn and Phasma’s grip. “Now get off of me, I just took the worst fucking test, and I need to nap like a goddamn lion.”

The other three laughed in response, slowly removing themselves from Ben and his futon, and allowing him to stretch himself out on it properly as they moved over to Finn’s bed, and continued their conversation as Ben buried himself beneath his blanket—which he couldn’t help but notice, smelled like her—and closed his eyes, letting sleep take over his stress addled body. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #prayforBen'sfuton


	10. Thirty Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> JESUS CHRIST BEN YOU ABSOLUTE SLUT. Anyway, we're here, and I don't think I'll update before or on Halloween, so uh... just remember in some universe out there, Ben Solo loses his virginity on Halloween, so like... there's where my mind's going.

The next week was rather uneventful. With all their midterms out of the way, he and Rey had absolutely nothing to do until finals week except for each other. Within the span of days, Ben went from their friend group’s most virginal saint to likely having more sex than even Poe. Still his friend referred to him by that stupid nickname, but nowadays it came with an accompanying wink that Ben was to afraid to ask the meaning of. 

Things always managed to take unexpected turns, though. He’d thought the most eventful thing of the week would be what had happened when he and Rey went out to the university’s common area fountain at three in the morning. According to legend, many a couple had sullied its pure, white tiles in the dark of the night, and it was an easy access place for public sex. This turned out to be a bit of a lie when they hadn’t even gotten half of their clothes off yet, and they heard the sounds of police sirens getting closer. 

At least they’d been able to mark off “run from the police.”

Rose teased them about it relentlessly for days after it happened, both of them flushing red every time she brought it up. She’d also been certain to let Finn and Phasma know about their attempt at a rendezvous in the fountain, both of whom absolutely howled with laughter. Ben had threatened to bury them both immediately if they ever whispered a word of the incident to Poe—even after the bet was over. 

Yet just about a week after Halloween, on Election Day of all days, they managed to beat that out. They’d just gotten back from the polls as a group, and Finn had headed off to work on a project in the library with Poe while Rose and Phasma went out to get the remainder of the group coffees. This had set up the perfect circumstances for Ben and Rey to have his futon completely to themselves, leading directly to the highlight of the week. 

The rain was pouring outside, and a part of Ben felt bad for their friends who had gone into town to get them coffee—maybe not too bad, though, after all, he’d given Rose the cash—but a larger part of him was too lost in Rey as she lay beneath him, her legs wrapped around his hips as he thrust into her. He could only pray that the earth shattering thunder was masking the sound of their moans successfully, since both of them were pulling away from their increasingly sloppy kisses to swear obscenely loudly as they built themselves to their climax. 

Ben was mid thrust when he suddenly remembered another point on the test, and he stopped, causing Rey to groan beneath him as she smacked his upper arm a few times. “We don’t have much time,” she reminded him, then concern filled her eyes. “Why’d you stop? Are you alright?” She reached up, and ran a hand through his hair. “Do you need to stop?” 

She always asked him that, and he always fell for her a little more when she did. “No,” he replied, reaching on the edge of the futon for his phone, and opening it to the camera. “I just remembered there was a point that asked if we’d ever been photographed or filmed during sex.”

“You sound so clinical. What a turn on,” she said sarcastically, but she quickly followed it with a laugh when she noticed his worried expression. “I’m teasing, let’s do it.”

A smile grew on Ben’s face, then he leaned down, and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead before he propped himself on one arm, and reached out with the other to capture both of their sweat streaked faces in the frame. “Say cheese.”

Rey laughed, causing his eyes to drift down to her exactly at the same time as he snapped the picture. He didn’t quite care about it enough to take another one as he gave the photo a look, but he nearly reconsidered that idea when he saw it. 

The way the picture was framed, he couldn’t see anything too x-rated, but it was obvious they were both wearing absolutely no clothing. They were both covered in a thin layer of sweat, which shone from their cheekbones and foreheads, and Rey’s face was pinched from laughter—somehow making her more beautiful—her eyes closed as she lost herself to Ben’s teasing tone. Ben on the other hand, he was looking at her, and the look in his eyes… it was unmistakable. He appeared completely besotted with the woman he was in the picture with, the love in his eyes obvious to anyone who had them as he stared down at her with a smile on his face. 

It was perhaps his favorite picture of himself, or of the two of them, but Rey couldn’t see this. She’d certainly figure how he felt, and he wasn’t quite ready for that yet. 

“Ben?” Rey asked softly, interrupting his heart pounding thoughts about the photograph.

“What?”

“Can I see it?”

_ Fuck.  _

There wasn’t exactly any good or decent excuse he could give her as to why he didn’t want her to see it. With a prayer that she didn’t interpret his expression the same way, Ben turned his phone screen to her, turning his face away from her so he missed her initial reaction to it. He only looked up when he heard her gasp softly, and when he spared a glance at her she was smiling at it. “It’s sweet,” she said quietly, looking almost mesmerized by the sight of it. 

“Yeah?” 

“Yeah, it’s a keeper,” she replied, then she chuckled. “Just not for anyone else’s eyes.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

She grinned at him, then she pressed the power button on his phone, and set it down behind them. “Now can we get back to business again? I was starting to get close when you stopped.”

Ben raised an eyebrow at her. “I wouldn’t exactly consider this business,” he said, giving her a smirk as he bent down to kiss her before she could protest, her words falling into a pleasantly surprised hum against his mouth before he resumed his somewhat rapid thrusts into her—the futon creaking in protest. 

Pulling away from her lips, Ben began to kiss droplets of sweat from her forehead between thrusts, picking up his pace as she cried out loudly into his shoulder. Outside, a bolt of lightning illuminated their bodies, the ensuing clap of thunder masking his own loud moan as his orgasm began to build within him. Rey whispered into his ear, sometimes things that turned him on and other times things that made him laugh out loud, but always something that put a smile on his face as he continued to fuck her into his futon. 

“Rey, I’m starting to— _ fuck. _ ”

“No offense, Ben, but I think you’re actually finishing,” she joked, causing him to nearly collapse on top of her as he lost himself to laughter. 

Somehow, he persevered her jokes, and after a few more well timed thrusts, he was just barely on the edge, closer than he’d ever been. The feeling of his impending orgasm left his movements shaky, almost uncontrolled, until suddenly—

**_SNAP!_ **

Ben and Rey were on the floor, and there was pain shooting up and down both his arms and one of his legs—and one unfortunate area of his chest. Both of them were groaning as they pulled apart from one another, and he rolled off of her—much to the protest of his highly bruised arms—to inspect the damage of whatever they’d just done to his poor, unfortunate futon. 

The mattress had slid off of it with Ben and Rey still on it, exposing the broken, metal skeleton where it had snapped just at the middle, causing their mid-coital fall. “Shit,” he breathed. 

Rey groaned beside him in agreement, though upon further notice, she was clutching one of her wrists, rubbing gently at the thin stretch of skin over the bone there. A frown grew on his face, then he reached down, and pulled the condom off of his softening cock before chucking it into the nearby garbage bin, and crawling over to her to investigate. “Are you okay?”

She gave him a nod, then she hissed sharply. “I’m fine, I think I just bruised it,” she said with a groan. “Oh, that didn’t feel good.”

“No, no it didn’t,” he replied with a laugh, reaching over to gently brush her disheveled hair out of her face. “I am so sorry.”

Rey took his hand in hers, though she didn’t move it from her face as her expression sobered suddenly. “I’m not. We did promise to break that thing.”

“Yeah, yeah we did,” he said, his voice full of fondness at the memory. “Good times.”

A grin broke out on her face as she reached up with her other hand, gripping his hair to pull him down to her to press his forehead against hers. “It was fun breaking your futon with you.”

Another stupid giggle left him, and he leaned down briefly to kiss her before he rolled away from her entirely, and stood up to grab his clothes out from under the futon’s mattress. “Come on, we’ve gotta get dressed. Phasma’s going to lose her shit when she realizes we’ve broken the futon and I’d rather not be naked when she does.”

Rey groaned again as he began to put his clothes back on, collapsing against the futon’s mattress. “You’re not a saint, you’re the devil. You’re  _ actually  _ the devil,” she told him, then she too was on her feet, and finding her clothes, doing her damndest to make herself appear somewhat presentable before Phasma and Rose returned with their coffee. 

As Ben put on his clothes, he watched almost hypnotized as she pulled her jeans up and over her hips, as she put together the clasp of her red, lace covered bra, and as the concert t-shirt she’d worn found itself slipped back over her head. For some reason, watching Rey get dressed was just as sexy as watching her get undressed. Both events were equally enthralling to him. 

“Ben?” 

“Hmm?”

“Enjoying the view?”

“What? Oh.” His cheeks flushed beet red as he avoided her gaze, then he began to stutter over himself as he scratched the back of his head. “I… I’m sorry, you’re… you’re…” he found himself unable to finish his sentence as he finished buttoning up the red and black flannel he’d worn that day. 

“I’m what?”

“You’re beautiful,” he said in a rush, then her jaw fell ever so slightly ajar, and his name left her lips again in the softest, kindest voice he’d ever heard. 

That look was in her eyes again as he finally found the courage to meet them, and he took in a deep breath as he approached her, taking her face in his hands. Was this how he looked at her? Was that what she was reflecting back at him? Perhaps it was time to tell her how he felt, maybe… maybe she would say she loved him back. With this new thought in mind, he let out a shaky exhale, then he worked to find the words. “Rey, I—“

He never got to finish that sentence. At that moment, a loud knock sounded on the dorm’s front door, followed by Phasma’s loud voice calling, “Open up! We’ve brought your fucking coffee!”

Instantly she pulled away from him, rushing for the front door to greet Phasma and Rose with a warm smile on her face. Ben felt his heart break a little at how fast she’d run from the moment that had occurred between them. One minute it had felt like she might possibly return his feelings, and putting his heart on the line might be worth it, and the next it felt like no matter what he did he was on the road to complete and utter heartbreak and she didn’t actually love him at all. Why else would she run?

“Ben, what the fuck happened?” Phasma’s very confused voice asked, and he looked up to see the blonde carrying a coffee tray with a Naboo Coffee logo stamped on its cups, threatening to drop the tray from the shock she was experiencing from the sight of Ben’s broken futon. 

The memory of how it broke now hurt his heart a little more. 

“Uh… we…” he said slowly, then he looked over at Rey in a silent cry for help, which she responded to with a smile and a roll of her eyes. 

“Alright, Phas, set the coffees down first, we don’t need anymore messes,” she began, then she waited for Phasma to put the coffee tray on the floor before she continued. 

“What our sweet, innocent Ben is trying to say is we broke it during sex,” she said as Rose and Phasma’s jaws dropped in shock, then she looked down at the ground in embarrassment. “And now we’re both… a little injured.”

“Mostly just bruises,” Ben assured them, rolling up the sleeve of his flannel to reveal an already purple bruise on his forearm that had Rose hissing through her teeth sympathetically while she clutched her metaphorical pearls at the news that he and Rey had apparently fucked hard enough to break the futon. 

Rey laughed as she gave him a grin. “Yeah, mostly.” She then bent down to the floor to pick up a cup as Rose began to fire off questions about what they were doing. 

“Do you guys just start having sex the moment any of us leave the room? Is every minute just you two waiting with your knees bouncing for us to be gone so you can bone?” Rose asked. 

Ben threw his head back in laughter, then he shook his head as Rey handed him a coffee cup from the ground. “No, we don’t, it usually just… happens, I swear.”

A sigh left Rose’s lips as she crossed her arms over her chest. “I feel like every single time I come in here, and you’re together, you’ve just had sex. You’re worse than an actual couple.”

At that moment, Rey reached for another coffee cup with her other hand, then she quickly cried out, dropping the cup back into the little holder as her hand came up to clutch at her wrist again. Instantly, the other three were at her side, and Ben—who had set down his coffee on the nearby desk—was holding her in his arms asking her repeatedly if she was alright, to which she replied. “I’m fine, I probably just bruised it worse than I thought.”

“I don’t know, Rey, usually if it hurts that bad to pick up a coffee cup—I’m no medical expert, but I think you might have more than a bruise,” Phasma observed, then she reached forward, and took Rey’s hand into hers as she inspected the injury, which was already a special shade of purple and blue that skin should not ever be. 

“We should probably go to the health clinic if it’s that bad,” he said, a sense of guilt slowly overwhelming him at the thought that he’d done that to her. He’d been fine with a few bruises, after all he’d obtained a couple himself, and he was sore all over, but anything worse than that… 

Rey groaned as she reached for the coffee cup again with her good hand, then she took a few sips before nodding her agreement, and setting it down. “Yeah, maybe. Who’s taking me, then?”

Ben rubbed gentle circles into her shoulder blade as he gave her a nod. “I’ll do it,” he said, then before she could say anything else, he added, “I’m the one who injured you, anyway.”

“Ben… it’s not your fault.” 

“Maybe not, but I’m still taking you. Phasma and Rose just got out of the rain, it’s not fair to send them right back into it.”

“Good point,” Rey said, then at last, she slowly stood up, and the others rose with her as she continued to gingerly hold her wrist. “Well, grab your keys, let’s get going. I still plan on drinking coffee with you guys when we get back.”

A grin grew on Ben’s face as he grabbed his keys off of the desk, then he turned to Rey. “Let’s go, then.”

“You better get back here before the coffee gets cold,” Phasma warned them, eyeing Ben and Rey’s coffee hungrily. 

“If you drink my coffee, Phas, I will kill you,” Rey replied as she and Ben began to walk toward the door. All they heard in response was a loud cackling as they walked out of the dorm, and into the hallway, with Ben holding the heavy door open for her as she passed in front of him. “Thanks, Ben.”

“No problem. It’s the least I could do,” he replied, then he took in a deep breath, trying not to feel even more guilty as he took in the slightly pinched expression on her face. It became evident to him fairly quickly that she was still in a great deal of pain, and he felt even worse as he watched her gently run her thumb over the bruised skin on her wrist. 

She must’ve noticed his concerned stare, since a moment later when they reached the elevators, he felt her good hand reaching up to caress his cheek. He leaned into the touch, living for the way she was staring up at him, just like she had been before Phasma and Rose interrupted their moment in his dorm. “Ben, I told you, you don’t have to feel guilty. It was just as much my fault as it was yours.”

“Yeah, but you got hurt worse than I did,” he said, reaching forward to press the down button that would summon their ride down to the lobby. “I just… I wish it had been me, that’s all.”

“I’m glad it was me. I’d rather it be me suffering than you,” she replied, her voice soft—perhaps too soft— as she spoke to him, her hand shifting back so that she was now stroking his hair. “Ben… Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, it’s not that bad, and I’ll be fine.”

“Rey—”

She shook her head, then she pulled him down to her, kissing him like they weren’t in the middle of a hallway where people could walk out and catch them at any time. Taking care not to touch her injured wrist, he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer to him so he could kiss her properly, his lips brushing against hers gently as if she’d been injured there instead. 

It would seem Rey was having none of that as she deepened the kiss, her tongue finding its way into his mouth as she slowly began to press him against the wall next to the elevator door. A soft moan left him as his back met the cool, smooth wall, feeling its temperature even through the thick fabric. 

He was so lost in their kiss that he barely noticed the sound of the elevator dinging its arrival. It wasn’t until he heard voices through the doors that he thought to pull away from her, at least for a second as he waited patiently for the doors to open, then for them to be able to get on the elevator before he quickly pulled her in, and pressed the button for the lobby. Ben’s patience was tested as he waited for the doors to close, then he pinned her to the wall this time, pressing his hands on either side of her as he kissed her again. 

Rey giggled against him as he held her to the wall, the descent of the elevator wasn’t the only thing that had his stomach tingling as she began to run her fingers through his hair. He wasn’t exactly complaining, but a part of him had been wondering why she’d decided to shut him up with a kiss when she most certainly didn’t need to. 

But they’d both done a lot of unnecessary things since they’d started the bet, hadn’t they? They didn’t need to kiss as often as they did, they certainly didn’t need to do most of the things they did, but for some reason… They kept finding every excuse to steal these little moments. One of them would always start gravitating closer to the other—or maybe they moved together, since Ben could never tell who started it— and next thing he knew he was up against a wall, or maybe she was, and maybe she was in his arms, her legs wrapped around his waist as he carried her to either her bed or his futon. So much for the latter of those two things. 

Ben was definitely not complaining about it though. Kissing her was quickly becoming almost religious for him, and he had learned very early on that it would never stop feeling like this. Perhaps it was because he loved her, and there was a chance— very slight, but still there— that she loved him back. 

She slowly pulled away from him, and he groaned at the loss of contact as she looked up into his eyes, mischief prominent in hers. “We’ve got to stop doing this every single time we’re alone.”

“Why? It’s fun,” he replied in protest, then she smiled up at him, wrinkling her nose as she buried her face in his chest. A soft exhale left her lips, and he wrapped his arms around her as the elevator came to a stop, and the doors opened. 

“Let go of me, you big oaf,” she said when his embrace lingered a second too long, then Ben chuckled lightly as he unwrapped his arms from around her waist, and led her out into the lobby, checking every two seconds to make sure her wrist wasn’t in any worse condition than it had been earlier. And every two seconds, Rey would assure him that she was fine, and he didn’t need to worry about her, but he always did. He always would. 

They walked all the way up to the front doors of the building before they realized it was still raining, and neither of them had brought an umbrella down there. The health center was technically right across the street, and Rey’s injury was on her wrist, not her feet. If they wanted to, the two of them could just run over there really, really fast, but it would have to be up to her whether or not they ran back up to the dorms to grab an umbrella. Or as Rey had coined them in the fourth grade, rain shields. 

“You want to just run really fast, or do you need an umbrella?” he asked, having to shout a little over the loud downpour outside that would surely soak them in seconds. 

She didn’t say a word in response. Instead, Rey grinned, grabbed his hand, and tugged him out the doors and into the rain. The cold water soaked them instantly, both of them screaming as they ran the short distance from their dorm to the student health center—the cold completely distracting him from how sore he still was from his bruises. When Ben looked over, she was already completely soaked to the bone, her clothes sticking to her skin in a way that he couldn’t imagine was comfortable, but it sure as hell was distracting. He was fairly certain he wasn’t doing much better as they finally approached the front of the health center, and burst through the doors laughing their asses off. 

The patients in the lobby—well, there were only three of them at least to spare Ben and Rey any true embarrassment—all turned their heads and glared at them as the rain-soaked friends wandered into the building seeming as if they were completely hammered. Ben found he didn’t care about their reactions as he shook his hair off and into Rey’s face. 

She gasped as the water from his hair flicked into her eyes, then she quickly retaliated, flinging her own water droplets into his face. Before he could even think to somehow get her back, however, a throat cleared nearby, and they both turned to see a very exasperated looking front desk woman staring at them with disappointment in her eyes. “Can I help you?”

Ben and Rey quickly stood at attention, and got down to business. She explained her problem—but not exactly the cause, which just the thought of said cause sent Ben’s cheeks flushing red—to the front desk woman, then the two of them were ordered to sit and wait for a few minutes. They walked over to a nearby set of hard, uncomfortable chairs, then they sat down, and Ben suddenly felt the chill in the air sinking into his skin despite the fact that the building’s heater was definitely running. He began to shiver a little as he realized he was absolutely freezing and soaking wet. 

It would seem that he wasn’t alone, though. Rey was also shivering when he looked over at her; she shook far more violently than he did, too, and another wave of guilt wracked his body as he realized that he’d done that to her as well. Sure, she’d tried to convince him that none of it had been his fault, that he hadn’t been the sole one to blame for her injuries, but he still couldn’t shake the feeling that he was entirely responsible. 

“You cold?” he asked gently, trying to hide just how much he himself was shivering. 

“Y-Yeah, a b-bit,” she replied, then she laughed as she wiped a wet strand of hair from her forehead. “That wasn’t such a g-good idea w-was it?”

Ben chuckled softly, then he opened up an arm for her. “No, it w-wasn’t,” he said, then he cocked his head. “C-Come here, maybe we can warm each other up.”

She gave him a smile that raised the temperature of the room by at least five degrees and caused Ben’s cheeks to flush a shade of red reserved for certain lipsticks, then she leaned into him, hissing as she accidentally bumped her wrist harshly against his thigh. Before he could ask if she was okay, she put her hand up, and sighed. “Aren’t we supposed to take our clothes off or something in this situation?”

It took all of Ben’s strength not to openly chortle. They’d already annoyed the other patients enough with their antics. “Um, I think so, but I doubt they want us to do that in here, so as sexy as that sounds… keep your clothes on, Rey.”

She groaned, though whether it was out of misery or pleasure he couldn’t tell as she leaned her head back against his shoulder. “I mean, it would fill the public sex question.”

“As much as I’d love to have sex with you anywhere, I don’t think we should try that again so soon after what happened last time,” he joked, and he couldn’t help but notice the way her breath hitched at his words. 

It was then that a nurse walked out of a door that he had no doubt led back to the examination rooms, and called out Rey’s name. They both stood up, and the nurse shook her head. “Sorry, but your boyfriend’s gonna have to stay in the lobby.”

“I’m not her boyfriend,” Ben said a little too quickly as he suddenly stepped away from Rey, but kept his eyes trained on her so that he didn’t miss the way her cheeks flushed from the nurse’s assumption. “I’m just…” God, what was he to her now? He was more than a friend, but not quite a boyfriend yet. Even that term seemed inadequate to describe what he was to her. There wasn’t a label he could think of that quite fit the two of them, they were an unknown, a mystery that baffled him daily. He loved her, and in some way she loved him, but…

Before he could think on it too much, Rey reached over and squeezed his hand with her good one, and gave him a grin. “See you soon,” she promised, then she and the nurse disappeared through the door that led to the back, and Ben was left alone in the lobby—shivering again now that he no longer had the luxury of her shared warmth. 

Ben waited for twenty freezing cold minutes while Rey got checked out by the doctors at the health center. He began to bounce the balls of his feet on the ground, undoubtedly irritating the other people in the room, but as they too were taken back to get their problems looked at, he was able to care about that less and less as time went on. His worries did turn to the cold he was no doubt developing at some point, and he made a mental note to go shopping later for an excessive amount of tomato soup to microwave in the bowls he frequently stole from the school’s dining hall. 

After what felt like forever, Rey walked out of the door with a piece of paper in her hand, and a little black brace on her wrist. The nurse was right behind her, smiling and telling her to have a good day and make sure she stayed out of the rain. Ben watched as she laughed, her smile lighting up the room as she looked over at him, then she walked toward him, and wrapped her arms around his waist. “You okay?” he asked, returning her embrace. 

“She thinks it’s a minor sprain,” Rey said with a groan, then she pulled away slightly, and showed him her brace. “I’ll have to wear this until after thanksgiving break, but I should be fine by finals week.”

Ben winced at the sight of it, then he slowly nodded. “Did they give you anything for the pain? Advil or something?”

She shook her head. “No, but it doesn’t hurt that much unless I bump it against things,” she told him, pressing her palm against his chest. “This doesn’t hurt too bad.”

His heart beat rapidly as he stared down at the hand that was spread out over his soaked flannel. “Well, that’s good, I guess,” he replied, then he turned just enough to get a look at the still stormy weather outside. A bolt of lightning lit up the sky outside the center just beyond their dorm building, and he looked back at Rey with a nervousness in his eyes. “You ready to get back out there?”

“No,” she replied, but she reached out and took his hand in her free one. “But I don’t want Phasma to drink my coffee.”

Another round of laughter was shared between them both as they looked out at the stormy skies, then Ben squeezed her hand, and made for the exit. He could feel the glares from the front desk people as they watched them go, but they burst forth from the health center without a care in the world as the freezing rain pelted their skin. 

Rey was giggling the entire way back to the dorm building, not seeming to give a shit that they were being hit by tiny little freezing bullets of water. The forecast that day had decreed it would be no warmer than thirty nine degrees fahrenheit with a pleasant windchill that brought things just a few degrees shy of freezing, and Ben certainly believed that to be true as they burst back into the lobby of their building, once again shivering and shaking water droplets out of their hair. They were both smiling something stupid as they walked up to the elevator, pressing the up arrow before waiting impatiently for it to carry them up to the dorm so they could change out of their wet clothes. 

“Ben, can I just borrow your hoodie again?” she asked as the elevator dinged its arrival, then he gave her a nod.

“You don’t even need to ask at this point, Rey, just take the damn hoodie, it’s yours.”

Again, that look was in her eyes as they walked onto the elevator, and Ben was tempted to ask her again what it meant. Fear gripped him before he could open his mouth, and he pressed the button that would send them to their floor before stepping back and waiting for the doors to close as he gathered his courage. 

The second they were closed, he turned to her, and leaned against the wall on the opposite side of the elevator to give her space as he asked the potentially uncomfortable question. “Rey, what does it mean when you look at me like that?”

She blinked at him a few times, then she crossed her arms over her chest as she cleared her throat. “I don’t know what you mean, I’m just looking at you, that’s all.”

“No,” he said, shaking his head as he took a single step closer to her. “I’ve seen you looking at me for years. It’s never been like it is now, and I don’t know what it means. So please, tell me.”

“It means  _ nothing,”  _ she said, her tone suddenly becoming more anxious, like she was trying to cut the conversation before it could truly start. Clearly, this was something she didn’t want to talk about. 

Sensing her discomfort, Ben decided against pressing her just because he wanted some answers. She’d tell him when she was ready, but he needed to know one thing first. “Rey, I’m just trying to figure out if something’s wrong, that’s all. Can you just tell me you’re okay, and then I’ll drop it?”

There it was again, those hazel eyes revealing everything and nothing to him all at once as the elevator dinged its arrival on their floor. She slowly gave him a nod, and reached out a hand for his. “I’m okay,” she promised. “And nothing’s wrong, everything’s… perfect, actually.”

“Will you ever tell me what it means?” he asked, lacing his fingers through hers. 

A hint of a smile grew on her face. “Someday.”

“But not today?”

“Not today,” she said, then she led them out of the elevator and into the hallway.

Ben watched her as they walked down to his dorm again, and even as he unlocked the door, he kept his eyes in her direction, trying to read behind the anxiety he could now see in her entire body. Once the door was unlocked, his hand found its way to the back of her neck, and he leaned forward to press a kiss to her forehead. “Hey, whatever you’re worrying about, it’s going to be okay.”

The corners of her mouth twitched up in the hint of a smile. “I know,” she said, then she pushed the door open, and almost immediately she was yelling sarcastically at Phasma for drinking her coffee while she and Ben were gone. 

Ben watched her with a soft smile on his face as he leaned against the entryway, then he quickly lost himself to laughter as Rey began to beat Phasma with one of Ben’s pillows that she’d grabbed off of his lofted bed—an impressive feat with only one good hand. The three women in the room were absolutely howling from sheer glee as Rey wound up falling on the futon’s mattress—which made Ben nervous as he watched her shield her wrist from harm—then she quickly sat up, and hit Phasma with the pillow one more time before deciding she was done. 

“Have you had enough now?” Phas asked, though she sounded delighted for someone who had just lost a battle to a pillow. 

“I’ll finish the job later,” Rey teased in response, then she stood up, and brushed herself off before she made straight for Ben’s closet, and reached in for the hoodie she always borrowed. “Look away, I need to get out of this fucking shirt.”

The other two women averted their eyes, but Ben watched her the entire time as she removed her shirt, leaving her in only the bra she’d been wearing that day for a few seconds before she slipped on his hoodie, and smiled broadly at him. She zipped it up quickly, and then reached into Ben’s closet and stole a pair of his sweat pants that she always had to tie as tightly as she could when she wore them. He shook his head as she stripped off her soaking wet pants, and sent them flying over Rose’s head—causing her to squeal—before she threw on his sweatpants over her also soaked underwear. 

“You done stealing my clothes?” Ben asked. 

Rey shrugged. “No, I’ll be stealing your clothes when we’re eighty.”

Oh he hoped she would. He’d let her steal his clothes when they were ninety—or a hundred years old if they lived that long. The sentiment behind her statement had his heart absolutely melting as he realized that it meant that in some way, Rey wanted to have him in her life for that long. That thought sent his mind reeling with all the things it could possibly mean, but he didn’t get the chance to dwell on it too long as Phasma suddenly made a gagging noise. “Ugh, I’m going to throw up, Rose, they’re already planning their eightieth anniversary.”

“Actually, I think they’re planning their sixtieth,” Rose replied, and Ben felt an odd mix of perfectly content and completely terrified at the prospect of an anniversary such as that. They were still far too young to think about things like marriages and wedding anniversaries, but if Ben were to be honest, she was certainly the one person he’d gladly daydream about doing that with. 

“Well, that’d be great if we were actually a couple,” Rey said as she sat down on the futon mattress between them. “But we’re not, so no wedding anniversaries in this friend group.”

Ah, there it was—the inevitable shattering of Ben’s daydreams. Another stupid reminder that they were unfortunately just friends, and they didn’t have that kind of life ahead of them. His heart broke a little in his chest at the thought of what would happen at the end of the bet, but he forced it from his mind as he laughed at her statement with the others. He could only hope they believed the smile he gave them as he too warned them that he needed to change out of his wet clothes, then everyone except for Rey averted their eyes. 

“Rey’s watching him get dressed, isn’t she?” Rose whispered quietly to Phasma. 

Phas opened her eyes briefly to look over at Rey, then she gave Rose a nod, and the two women snickered, causing Ben’s eyebrows to furrow as they began to whisper amongst themselves. He remembered their conversation from the previous week. Had they talked to Rey about what she might or might not feel for him yet? Did they know whether or not he was headed straight for the most epic train wreck of the century? He had no way of knowing. They certainly hadn’t told him anything and he was sure they had no intention of doing so. Even Finn had remained mum about the situation over the past week, which drove Ben insane every night when he looked over at his roommate’s sleeping form just  _ thinking  _ he might know something. That he might know the solution to all his problems was enough to send him reeling. 

He watched Rey’s cheeks flush again at the realization that she’d been caught, then he was the one snickering under his breath as he pulled a pair of dry jeans up and over his hips. Once she recovered from the embarrassment, her eyes were on him again, and he gave her another blush inducing wink as she watched him the same way he’d watched her moments ago. 

It wasn’t until he was fully dressed that he heard her let out another breath, and he felt a sense of pride swell within him as he sat down beside her, and they resumed the afternoon they’d intended to have with their friends before her unfortunate injury. 

That night, they stayed in their own dorms for the first time in ages. Finn was in the shower, his music turned up loudly enough that Ben doubted he could hear a word of his FaceTime conversation with Rey as they sat on their respective phones snacking in their beds. “Hey how low do you think my score is now?” he asked, then he scratched his head. “I mean, we should probably check in and see how much we still have to do. We’ve only got about four weeks left, maybe five.”

“That’s still plenty of time, but you’re absolutely right, hold on—you grab your laptop, I’ll grab mine,” she said, then the screen shifted as Rey rolled off of her bed, and grabbed her computer from her desk before she hopped back into it. 

“I don’t know, Rey, my bed’s lofted, it’ll be a pain in the ass to get down there.”

“Don’t be a fucking baby, Ben Solo,” she said, though the giggle she added at the end put doubt in the intensity of her statement. “Get off your ass and get it.”

Ben grumbled a response as he swung a leg over the edge of his bed, and slowly lowered himself to the floor before walking over to his own desk to grab his laptop. “This stupid test is on my search history so many times now, that all I have to fucking do is type ‘R’ and it shows up.”

“Me too,” she said with a laugh, then he watched her run a hand through her wavy, dark hair on the screen. “It’s ridiculous. That’ll be fun to explain to our parents, won’t it?”

“If you think my parents are ever going to see what’s on my laptop, you’re dead wrong. I’d rather jump off a building.”

Another obnoxious laugh. “Me too—oh no.”

“What?”

“Ben, we’re going home for Thanksgiving. I haven’t been back there since we started the bet,” she said, and the unfinished half of that sentence quickly settled into his stomach, making him feel thoroughly nauseous. 

“Oh.”

“I don’t know how I’m going to look your mother in the eye.”

“It won’t be that hard, she loves you, she always has. You’re like a daughter to her.”

“But, Ben… I deflowered her son.”

He openly chortled, the sound loud enough for Finn to turn down the Lady Gaga song he was blasting in the shower and ask him if he was okay. Ben immediately yelled back that he was fine, and the loud music resumed anew. “Rey, I’m not some virginal maiden from the sixteenth century, this is 2018. We’ll be fine as long as we don’t tell her. As far as she knows, I’ve never even been kissed.”

“Oh my god, they don’t even know you’ve been kissed…” she breathed, then she let out a low whistle. “We’ve really done a lot this semester, haven’t we?”

“Yeah… yeah, we have. My first kiss was a month ago.”

“And now you’re a slut.”

“I’ve only had sex with you!” he protested. 

“Still counts, since we’ve been having a lot of it.”

“Alright, that’s fair.”

A giggle left her as she opened her laptop, then he followed suit. Both of them only had to type the letter R, and then the test’s Internet address appeared before them. Ben shook his head in disappointment at himself as he hit the enter key, and the canary yellow filled his screen. He coughed when he read the line directly underneath the test’s name, and Rey gave him an odd look as she began clicking down her screen. “What?”

“It says, ‘this is not a bucket list, and any attempt to complete every item on this list will likely result in death.’”

Rey snorted. “Well, it’s not like we’re actually trying to complete  _ everything  _ on the list, just everything but twenty five things.”

“That’s true, but still we have been using it like a bucket list,” he said, then he began to click off the things he’d done, smiling at some of the memories the things on the test stirred. 

_ French kissed in public _ he remembered the first time they’d kissed between the shelves in the library, the way that had awakened him—made him feel alive in a way that nothing ever had before. If he closed his eyes he could still feel how she pressed him up against the shelves, he could still hear the sound of her voice as she murmured, “ _ touch me, _ ” into his ear. Out of all the things they’d done so far, it was easily one of his favorite memories. 

He tried not to linger on any of them too long, but he couldn’t help the way his finger stalled over the question,  _ had sexual intercourse? _ And the sweet memory of his first time hit him like a truck even though it was a mere week old. A smile grew on his face, then he continued clicking through the test, clicking off far more than he thought he’d done—he’d never thought he’d ever check off, “used a sex toy with a partner, but there he was.  _ Thanks, Rey’s vibrator.  _

“Okay, I’m done,” he announced after a moment. 

“Me too,” she said, then she laughed. “You ready?”

“No, you?”

“No, this is going to be fucking shameful.”

“Let’s see our results at the same time, then, ready?”

“Ready.”

“One…”

“Two…”

“Three,” he finished, then he hit the mouse button, and a bright red thirty seven popped up on his screen. “Okay, wow.”

“What? What’s yours?”

“Uh… thirty seven…” he said, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. “What about you?”

“The same,” she replied, then she laughed. “Wow, we went from being on completely different levels to having the exact same score.”

“I know, it’s… wow, I started with an eighty one.”

“Jesus fucking Christ, Ben.”

“Hey, it’s your fault.”

“Eat me,” she replied, then when she saw the look on his face, she groaned. “You ass, you know what I mean.”

“Do I?”

“You absolute fucking asshole.”

“I didn’t think you’d be into that, Rey.”

“Ben, I will never fuck you again if you don’t stop with the god awful puns.”

Oh, well, he couldn’t risk that, could he? At her words, he relented, putting a hand up in surrender as he slowly relaxed into his mattress. “Okay, but can I come over there? You did just ask me to eat you.”

Rey laughed as she rolled her eyes, “Afraid not. I just absolutely got my period at the worst fucking time, so having sex with me right now would be the least sexy thing I can imagine.”

“Okay, fair.”

A sympathetic smile appeared on her lips, then she was visibly struck with an idea. “But I do seem to recall one of the points on the test being having sex via video chat.”

Ben snorted. “How the fuck does that work?”

“I don’t know, but I’d be willing to figure it out if you are.”

He paused, holding up a finger to his screen as he listened to Finn’s shower music, trying to gauge exactly how much he could get away with given how loud it was. After a few seconds, he heard Finn beginning to sing along—not terribly either—to the chorus of  _ Bad Romance _ , which wouldn't exactly make for the greatest background music, but Rey tended to make the world disappear around him. He’d be okay. 

“Okay,” he said, then he laughed at the ridiculousness of it all. “I’m in. Wait— what about Rose?”

“She just went to study with a group of friends in the library. She won’t be back for hours.”

Ben’s breath hitched at the thought, then he slowly nodded. “So…”

“So…?”

“How do we do this?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright y'all better make like Ben, Rey, Rose, Phasma, Finn, and Poe and vote on the sixth if you're Americans. Also #RIPBen'sFuton2k18, the next chapter will be its eulogy.


	11. Thirty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my favorite chapter y'all. I didn't think it would be, but it is. I loved this one.

Video chatting proved not to be their most successful venture, but not because they were particularly bad at it, but because minutes later, Finn had stumbled out of the shower the color of a tomato. He hadn’t quite heard everything, but he certainly heard more than he had ever wanted to. It had become abundantly clear to him then; they didn’t deserve their friends.

With their call interrupted, he and Rey decreed that they’d tried for long enough to earn their point, laughed their asses off at what fools they were, and hung up, allowing Ben to spend his first night alone in ages. It wasn’t particularly enjoyable, in fact, he spent hours just tossing and turning in his bed while he tried desperately to sleep, and wound up only getting a couple of hours.

Over the next couple of weeks, things began to get intense. Rey never quite told him what her continued odd gazes meant, and he never pushed her, but he never stopped wondering, never stopped hoping it meant she loved him, too. They crossed off two more points before the great Thanksgiving trip of 2018, having tried out period sex the very next day—both of them figuring _what the fuck, why not?—_ and much to Phasma’s sheer delight, they’d attempted to try sixty-nineing in Rey’s bed the next week. That particular experience had been far from grand, and due to their height difference had been sufficiently awkward, but they had been given a good laugh and they were one step closer to beating Poe’s score.

He and Rey were now in the perfect position three weeks before the semester ended to completely obliterate their end of the bet. Well, Poe hadn’t quite known he was involved—as far as they knew, at least— but still. Ben could not wait to see the look on his face when he realized that saint solo had a lower score than he did. He could not fucking wait.

They left for Ben, Rey, and Poe’s hometown on the Friday morning that started Thanksgiving break, not caring that most of them did in fact have classes. Nobody showed up to class on that Friday anyway. Nobody.

They again had to pile into two separate cars just because of the sheer volume of stuff they had. Ben, Rey, Poe, and Finn piled into his car, and Rose, Hux, and Phasma agreed to take the van. A sense of anxiety filled Ben at the thought of spending so long in a car with Poe, after all, what if they got caught? Hell, with how many odd looks Poe had been giving him lately, he suspected his friend at least knew they were sleeping together—or rather, that he knew something was going on between them at the bare minimum.

The trunk of Ben’s car was popped wide open as the four of them piled their luggage into it. Poe grunted as he tossed a heavy looking black duffel bag in there, causing Ben to wince as something crashed within it loudly. It sounded like something had broken, but he was quick to assure him that it was fine.

“You sure?” Ben asked, eyeing the duffel bag suspiciously as he piled his own suitcase in next to it.

“Yeah, positive,” Poe replied, then he looked over to Phasma and Hux’s van, which was parked just across the way from Ben’s. Rey and Finn had gone over there a few minutes ago to wish their friends luck on the road, promise they’d see them there, and all that, and both Ben and Poe had stayed behind to put the luggage in the trunk. Already though, he got the vibes that this was something he was going to regret saying yes to. “Anyway, I’ve been meaning to ask you something for a hot minute now…”

_Fuck. Fuck. Fuck._

Ben tried to keep a neutral expression as he leaned against the car, and crossed his arms. “What’s up?”

Poe sighed, and scratched the back of his head. “Look, I wasn’t going to say anything, but…” He made a groaning noise, then he put his hands on his hips, rising to his full height. “How long have you and Rey been a thing? Or… No wait, better question, what’s going on?”

“Uh… Uh…” Ben uttered out, unsure what to say, until it suddenly came to him. “Look… I… I don’t know what’s going on, but… something’s…” He looked over at Rey, watching as she laughed at a joke Finn cracked that made all five of them lose it. “Something’s changed, Poe. Something good.”

Looking at him apprehensively for a moment, Poe slowly began to nod, then he clapped a hand on Ben’s shoulder. “I figured it was something like that. I just… I couldn’t help but notice there was something different about you.”

Ben nearly choked on his own breath. There definitely was something different about him lately, and it had happened about two and a half, maybe three weeks earlier in the backseat of his car— _that Poe was about to be sitting in._ Mercifully, he managed to hold back his reaction, and instead he gave him a nervous laugh. “I’m just… Poe, I think…”

Poe’s face grew serious. “You think…?”

He shook his head. “No… I know… and it sounds cheesy, but… after all this time I’m…” In that moment, Rey and Finn started to head back over to them, and he sighed as he looked back at Poe. “I’ll tell you more later.”

“Yeah, yeah, take your time, man, it sounds…” he paused, searching for the right word. “Just… I’m excited for you, Ben. You’re in for a ride.”

“Who’s in for a ride?” Rey asked as she approached, slipping an arm around Poe’s shoulders casually as she slid into the conversation.

Poe and Ben both looked at each other awkwardly, then the former of the two gave her a nervous laugh. “We all are!” he cried happily. “Six hours on the road, three hundred miles… One hell of a ride!”

“Yes,” Ben said in agreement. “One hell of a ride, so why don’t we get on it?”

Finn and Rey gave the two of them weird looks, but upon receiving a knowing stare from his boyfriend, he clapped his hands together, and moved toward the back door of Ben’s car. “Right, we should. I want to know what kind of people raised you, Ben Solo.”

“Trust me, you’ll regret it,” Ben promised him as he reached for the driver’s side door.

Rey gave Poe a noogie, then she patted his shoulder, and they both walked around to the passenger side before the four of them all opened their doors in unison. Ben ducked inside first, then waited for the others to follow suit before he put the keys in the ignition, and started the car. In his rearview mirror, he could see Phasma, Hux, and Rose’s van already taking off, barreling out of the parking lot like a bat out of hell.

“They’re gonna get to my house before I do,” Ben muttered, causing all four of the others to laugh as he began to back out of the space, taking extra time to make sure no one else was in his way before he too made for the parking lot’s exit, and they were soon headed out on the highway barreling toward the coast.

The drive was going to be six hours, and Ben intended to spend that time wisely. He turned on the radio to that classic rock station he’d been listening to with Rose and Rey the night of Halloween—the night he’d… Ben looked at the backseat of his car through the front mirror, watching as Finn and Poe started to sing along to the beginning verse of _Don’t Stop Believin’_ where just weeks earlier he’d experienced the best night of his life.

 _“Rey, you’re my best friend, and I love you. I think that counts.”_ His voice had been trembling, he could still feel the lump in his throat whenever he thought about it, and what she said in response.

 _“I love you, too. And if you’re alright with this, I think it definitely counts._ ”

Nostalgia filled him at the memory, and he swallowed back the lump forming in his throat just as Rey started slapping his arm and urging him to sing along.

He gave her a grin as he looked over at her, then he began to belt out the song along with his friends as they approached the freeway, and turned onto it, taking them onto the road they’d be on for the next two hours before they made their first gas station stop. Rey’s voice filled his ears as the time went on, and he found that it was actually rather lovely. If her career as a scientist didn’t work out, she certainly had something going for her as a singer.

Over the next two hours, they sang, laughed, and talked until their sides were sore and their voices were hoarse. Every time Ben looked back in his mirror at Finn and Poe or over at Rey there were smiles on his friends faces, and he realized he could feel one on his own every time he saw theirs. It was probably the happiest he had ever been, but still there was something missing. He couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was, but it was like there was just one piece of the puzzle that still had yet to fall into place.

At one point, _Go Your Own Way_ came on, and while their friends belted it out in the back seat, Ben turned to Rey, and laughed. “Do you remember that time when we were in the car with my dad and he played this for the first time in front of us... and we made him listen to this album for a month straight on the way to and from school?”

“Oh my god, we drove him insane. Your dad is the only person in the country who hates _Rumors_ because of us.”

“We’re legends because of that,” Ben replied, then he turned up the radio, letting Lindsey Buckingham’s voice fill his car as he passed seventy five miles per hour, and rolled down the windows. The highway was rather full, and they were likely annoying everyone within a five mile radius, but what were they if not youthful idiots who didn’t give a damn what the rest of the world thought of them?

Rey was beaming at him as he stole another glance at her, then he reached over, and ruffled her hair as it blew wildly in the wind. “I’ll kill you, Ben Solo!” she shouted, then he threw his head back, and howled his laughter before keeping his attention firmly on the road. They had to get there in one piece, though he wouldn’t mind dying before he had to face his mother again.

He got the feeling that Leia would take one look at him, and automatically know that not only was he no longer a virgin, but that it had been the girl sitting passenger side who had taken his virginity. She wouldn’t exactly shame him for it, but he was certain it would lead to damn near relentless teasing that he would never be able to escape for as long as he lived, and his best friend would be thoroughly embarrassed as well. He could see it as if it had already happened.

His father on the other hand would laugh his ass off if or when he found out. Han would be openly chortling, his sides splitting as he tried desperately to hold himself together while he looked between the two crimson friends and shook his head. After years of teasing him and Rey about getting together—they’d grown up with constant jokes from his dad about when they would eventually date— he’d probably throw his hands up in the air once he was done laughing, and shout, _“Finally!”_ at the two of them, then wonder when the wedding was.

But if they somehow figured out that something had happened between him and Rey, they would start asking questions about the potential romance between them, and that would make things unbelievably awkward. Ben looked down at the brace that still adorned Rey’s wrist from when they’d broken his futon two weeks earlier, and he remembered how he’d reacted when the nurse had told him her boyfriend would have to wait in the lobby. Being called her boyfriend had done something to him, made him feel warm on the inside. There was something about the moniker that had just felt so _right,_ and he’d known he loved her, but hearing that…

Ben definitely wanted to be her boyfriend, he just needed to figure out the right time to ask her, and more importantly, he needed to find the _courage_ to.

They pulled off of the freeway to stop for gas an hour later, with Poe and Finn grabbing way too many things of Oreos at the convenience store there. They’d just intended to stop for a bathroom break, but somehow they’d wound up with three packs of milk’s favorite cookie. Even Rey had fallen victim to the temptations of the store as well, and she walked in with two packs of skittles and a tube of starbursts. He looked at the gatherings in his friends’ hands—he’d stayed with the car while he pumped gas into it—and shook his head as he began to shame them for their choices.

More laughter ensued as they piled back into the car, and headed back out onto the road, driving into the rising sun for the next four hours as Ben drove them all home. The classic rock continued to play in the background in a way that would make his father proud, though the continued repetitions of songs from the _Rumors_ album certainly would not. The thought put a smile on his face as they got closer and closer to the coast, passing by palm trees that had certainly been planted there rather than grown naturally as they crossed a state line into a coastal state.

“We’re almost there, guys!” Ben announced, then his rather tired passengers managed a half-assed cheer, and he laughed as he looked back to see the deliriously sleepy look in Poe’s eyes as his head sunk down onto Finn’s shoulder. “You two better not have sex in my back seat.”

“You’re one to talk, Ben,” Finn murmured sleepily, then his eyes widened, and he glanced down nervously at his boyfriend.

Ben nearly crashed the car as he too looked at Poe, relief filling his veins as he realized his friend was already asleep. Or at least, he was pretending to be for his sake. He wasn’t the kind of guy who would make things awkward by confronting Ben in front of people, no, if he’d heard anything, he’d pull him aside later and ask him quietly what was going on. It was one of the qualities about his other best friend he admired most.

Once he was certain Poe wasn’t going to say anything about Finn’s slip of the tongue, Ben cracked a smile. “You telling me you don’t believe I’m Saint Solo?”

Finn shrugged. “I’m just saying your back seat has a lot of space. I have no idea where you get these dirty ideas, your holiness.”

The tension in the car broke, and Ben found himself laughing right along with Finn and Rey, though they were forced to keep their cackles down to subdued giggles. Once the laughter passed, Ben sighed, then he glanced over at Rey, finding a crimson blush already creeping up her cheeks. “We’re not going to survive this week,” he mumbled under his breath.

The corners of her mouth lifted into a smile. “No, we’re not,” she replied, then they both chuckled nervously, and Ben continued to drive them closer to their hometown.

Twenty miles from the coast, Ben got off the freeway, and turned onto an exit that led him to the small town he and Rey—and later Poe—had grown up in. His anxiety over his parents learning his secret slowly started to ramp itself up as they grew closer and closer to the neighborhood his parents had lived in since they’d gotten married. The gated community loomed upon them too soon, and Ben’s fingers shook some as he rolled down a window, and punched in a code on a keypad, then as they drove through the gates, he turned to Rey. “Mind texting my mom to let her know we’re practically here?”

She gave him a nod, then reached for her phone, and typed the fastest text he’d ever seen. Apparently she was nervous too. Ben grinned at her as he reached for her hand, keeping the other firmly planted on the steering wheel as she laced her fingers through his on his lap. It reminded him of the month before when they’d been in his car and his fingers had slowly slipped their way up her thigh until they found her clit and he began to drive her wild as Finn and Poe made out in the backseat of his car, too distracted in one another to notice the utter sin going on in the front of the car. The reminder brought a smile to his face as he turned onto the street where his house sat at the top of a long driveway that was an absolute beast to back out of. He was fairly certain most of his driving knowledge came from that thing.

Slowly, he let go of Rey’s hand, not wanting his mother to catch him holding it when she inevitably came out to greet them. He forced his nerves down as he pulled into said ridiculous driveway, smiling a little when he saw both of his parents walking out of the side door of the house to greet them. Even from a distance he could see his mother was still dressed for work—she was the principal of one of the local high schools, but not the one Ben had gone to—and his father was still covered in engine grease—he owned a car repair shop. The contrast between the two made him chuckle as he pulled the car off to the side, and parked before looking over at Rey. “You ready?”

She shook her head. “No.”

He grinned, then he looked back at Finn, and gestured to his still sleeping boyfriend. “Wake him up, it's time.”

Finn quickly began the task of shaking Poe awake as gently as he could, and as Ben and Rey got out of the car, he heard a groan as Poe simply moved away from his boyfriend, and collapsed against the car door. A laugh escaped Ben as he shut his own door behind him, and moved to greet his parents as they walked toward him.

“How’s my favorite son?” his mother asked as she wrapped her arms around him.

Ben snorted as he returned her embrace. “I’m your only son, mom.”

“That makes you my favorite then, doesn’t it?”

“Guess so,” Ben replied, then he pulled away from his mother and found his arms wrapped around his father next. “Hey, dad.”

“Hey, Ben, looks like you brought some new faces.”

Ben pulled away, clapping a hand on his father’s shoulder. “Yeah, there’ll be a few more coming. But, I promise they’re not too obnoxious.”

Han laughed, then he looked back at the group Ben had brought with him again. “Rey!” he shouted, making his way toward her next while Leia made for Poe, telling him something Ben wasn’t listening to about a dinner she’d had with his mother the week before. “It feels like it’s been forever.”

“It’s been too long,” Rey replied, smiling nervously as her arms wrapped around his father’s back.

“My son still driving you crazy?”

“Always,” she replied, throwing a wink at Ben over his dad’s shoulder that caused him to roll his eyes. “But it’s nothing I can’t handle.”

As his dad pulled away, Ben stepped around Finn as he moved to allow Poe to introduce him to his mother. “Oh please, you drive me crazy more than anything. Stop telling my parents lies.”

“Ben, I have known you your entire life, I trust her when she says you’re a nuisance.”

“Thanks for your faith in me, dad.”

“Welcome,” Han replied sarcastically, then he looked over at Finn and Poe. “Who’s your friend then?”

“Poe’s boyfriend,” Rey answered, staring over at the couple with an almost wistful look in her eyes. “They began dating about a week after classes started. Been all over each other ever since.”

Ben glanced at Finn and Poe briefly, then he turned his gaze back on Rey to find she was already looking at him. He was vaguely aware that his father was saying something to him, but he was too busy focusing on the way she was smiling at him as she walked over by his side, and rested her elbow on his shoulder, leaning into him. His thoughts were consumed by hazel eyes and body heat, and not at all on whatever Han was talking about. That was all lost to him as he looked down at Rey’s lips, wanting nothing more than to bend down and kiss her again right then and there—

“Ben?” his father asked, and he jumped slightly at the sound of his name.

“Yeah?”

“You alright there, kid?”

Ben felt his cheeks turn red, and he hoped with all his heart that his father hadn’t noticed exactly how intensely he’d been staring at Rey or the fact that for most of that time she’d been staring right back. They’d only been home for five minutes. He wasn’t ready to have that conversation yet. “I’m fine, I was just… distracted.” It wasn’t exactly a lie.

A knowing smirk appeared on his dad’s face, and instantly Ben knew he’d been caught and an awkward conversation was somewhere between seconds and hours away. “I bet you were,” Han replied with a laugh, then before he could say anything else, a familiar horn honked from the base of the hill, and a black van slowly crawled up the driveway toward them. The rest of the entourage had arrived, and if Ben could, he would kiss all three of the people in the car. They had just bought him at least three hours to prepare himself.

As it would later turn out, they’d actually bought him five. It wasn’t until hours later when they’d already eaten dinner and everyone had gone away to either their homes—like Poe, Rey, and Finn who’d gone with his boyfriend—or to the house’s various spare rooms—which they’d left open for Phasma, Hux, and Rose—that his father finally managed to corner Ben while they were cleaning dishes. Leia had elected to skip out on the task to plan a staff meeting, but Han and Ben were certainly not exempt just because they were one member of the family down.

“Ben?” Han asked, causing his son to blanch even whiter than he already was.

“Yeah, dad?”

“I couldn’t help but notice… a sort of…” his father set down the plate he was rinsing, and turned off the sink. “I don’t know… an energy exchange, I guess, between you and Rey.”

“What about it?” He tried to keep his voice level, tried desperately not to give away anything incriminating.

“Nothing, I’m just wondering if after all these years of me teasing you about it you’ve actually developed a crush on her.”

_Oh, it’s more than a crush, dad._

Ben swallowed nervously, unsure of how to tell his father the truth. He wasn’t just crushing on Rey, he’d fallen in love with her. A crush was an insult to what he felt for her, it didn’t even scratch the surface of the depth of those feelings that had completely consumed his soul. No, he was in love, plain and simple. “Look, you can’t tell her anything, dad, but… I…” he looked around to make sure his mother wasn’t also lurking or eavesdropping on their conversation, then he turned back to his father. He’d probably regret telling him this later, he’d already told too many people, but he needed to talk about this before he lost his mind. “I’m in love with her. Genuinely, honest to god in love with her,” he said quietly.

His father blinked a few times, clearly stunned by his son’s news. “You’re kidding.”

“No, I’m not. I…” he could feel himself trembling again. And suddenly it was like he was on his futon, and she was unconscious beside him and he was pouring his feelings out to her in prayer that she couldn’t hear him. “I really love her, dad. I can’t explain how it happened, but I…”

Han didn’t say anything else, he just wrapped his arms around his son, and held him tightly. “Then you need to tell her, Ben. That girl deserves to hear what you just told me.”

“I just… dad, I don’t know if she feels the same way, and it’s killing me. Cause if she doesn’t…” If she didn’t have feelings for him, in just a month he would never know what it felt like to kiss her again, to hold her tightly as he rocked into her or to cuddle against her in the aftermath. Ben would never know what that felt like again, and it would probably kill him. His gravestone would read; “Ben Solo, dead at 19, killed by Rey Johnson.”

The thought almost made him laugh.

“Ben, I’ve got eyes. Whatever I saw, she was looking at you the same way you were looking at her,” Han told him, then he pulled back from his son, and crossed his arms as he leaned against the counter. “I don’t think you’re afraid that she doesn’t have feelings for you, son, I think you’re afraid that she does.”

“Dad-”

“You’ve never had a relationship before, Ben, and it’s got you scared shitless, you’re shaking just admitting to _me_ that you love her. You don’t know what to expect, you don’t know what’s going to happen, but let me tell you,” his father prodded a finger into the center of his chest. “It’s worth the risk. The minute you’re ready to, you need to tell her.”

Ben smiled softly at his dad, then he slowly nodded. “Is this what it was like with you and mom?”

All he got in response was a laugh, then Han patted him on the shoulder. “That’s a story for when you’re older and we’re both drunk off our asses,” he said, then he turned the sink back on. “Anyway, back to work. But you tell that girl how you feel about her, you understand me?”

“Yes, dad.”

His father gave him another signature Solo grin, then the two of them began to finish up their work. Ben’s thoughts remained locked on his father’s words of wisdom the entire time. _I think you’re afraid that she does._ Somehow despite only knowing a small portion of the story, his father had managed to pry open Ben’s innermost thoughts and feelings about his situation with Rey. On intuition alone, Han had somehow figured out exactly what Ben’s true fear was.

Yes, the thought of her not having feelings for him was absolutely terrifying, but he’d become increasingly aware over the last several weeks that he might not be alone in his feelings. Especially as Rey continued to look at him in a way he was slowly beginning to understand, the language feeling less foreign to him now the more she spoke it. All her little touches, all of the unnecessary kisses she initiated… Maybe she didn’t know she was in love with him yet, but she certainly wasn’t feeling anything strictly platonic for him either.

Ben’s breathing shook as he walked up the stairs five minutes later, and as he flopped down on his old bed, his heart was thudding loudly against his chest as the realization from his father’s words hit him like a truck. Ben was in love with her, and she probably loved him back. It meant they had a future together, that someday long after the bet was over, Ben could wake up beside her again and again and again. They’d kiss when they didn’t need to at every chance they could, or no longer have to worry about hiding their sex life from Poe unless he got too nosey about it. They’d be… They’d be a real couple.

He closed his eyes, trying to think of all the things he could say to tell her how he felt, but none of them felt good enough. Nothing seemed perfect enough to tell her how much he loved her, no, there weren’t words suitable for Rey. What he felt for her transcended words, it was a feeling, an all encompassing feeling. _How in the fuck was he supposed to express that?_

The next evening, Ben had his friends over while Leia and Han attended a party at the Dameron’s house. They’d claimed it was adults only, and despite the fact that all seven of them assured his parents that they were, in fact, legally adults—Phasma and Hux could even drink, for fuck’s sake— they’d shaken their heads and assured them that they meant actual adults rather than ramen noodle filled messes. This left Ben and the others alone in a massive house… and a hot tub.

The hot tub was a newer addition to the house. His parents had gotten it installed shortly after graduation in a little gazebo type thing they’d always had in the backyard. They’d decorated it with christmas lights and a speaker system, which had made it all kinds of fun in the aftermath of his graduation part when he and Rey had engaged in a splash fight. It hadn’t been as good of an idea as either of them thought, since scalding hot water was never meant to find its way into one’s eyeballs.

That night, the seven of them had piled into it, laughing obnoxiously as they nursed the virgin editions of famous alcoholic drinks—his parents had locked the liquor cabinet and despite Phasma’s protests that she could pick locks, he assured them his mother would find out about it no matter what they did— and relished in the feeling of being freed from school for an entire week. Ben and Rey sat side by side as the warm water bubbled around them, though they were barely touching as they were trying desperately not to give away anything to Poe to allude to the fact that they had been sleeping together for the past three weeks.

“Holy shit, this is so nice,” Rose practically moaned as she leaned her head back against the edge of the tub. “This is the best I’ve felt in a long time.”

“Being mostly naked with a group of people tends to have that effect,” Poe teased as he took a sip of his drink. “I imagine it’s better when you’re actually naked.”

Phasma chuckled. “You joke, but orgies aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, Poe.”

“We can’t all be legendary sluts like you, Phas.”

This time it was Hux who laughed. “I don’t know, Phasma, I seem to recall you rather enjoyed it. You certainly made the most noise out of everyone in the room.”

Ben’s jaw dropped, but upon further inspection, so did everyone else’s as they watched Phasma’s face turn beet red. The crimson spread on her cheeks as she buried her face in her hand, then sighed. “Okay, you’ve got me, it was a lot of fun.”

The entire group burst into side splitting laughter, Ben put down his drink to hold his stomach as it became immensely painful to move. Eventually, even Phasma was laughing at her own misery as the entire group descended into pure chaos. He felt Rey leaning on him, her dark wet hair falling onto his shoulder as she cried laughing into his skin.

After a while, the now crimson faced crew slowly came down from their highs, wiping away tears from their faces as they began to sober up. It only took Poe a few more seconds before he cleared his throat, and pointed at Phasma with the hand he didn’t have wrapped around Finn’s shoulders. “But what was it like? That many people?”

“It was only four!” Hux protested, then he took a sip of his drink, and grumbled, “That many people,” under his breath.

“Still it’s more than most of us do,” Rose added, then Poe put a hand over his chest.

“Rose gets me,” he said, then he looked over to see Finn glaring mockingly at him. “Not as much as you do, babe,” he added quickly, then Finn rolled his eyes before he kissed Poe, and Ben looked away quickly, his eyes finding Rey’s as she stared up at him.

The conversation continued as Ben set down his drink before slipping his hand into the water. He dropped his gaze from Rey’s, keeping his eyes trained on anything that wasn’t her as his hand searched for her non-injured one beneath the foam that swirled at the water’s surface. He heard Rey giggle softly beside him, though whether it was from what he was doing or the hilarity of the orgy subject they’d gotten into—which Ben had no particular interest in, it had been one of the things he and Rey had agreed not to do after all—he couldn’t tell.

Still his hand finally found hers, their fingers lacing themselves together as they continued to stare but not take part in the conversation. There was something undeniably romantic about holding her hand in secret like that which surpassed all of their stolen kisses and things they’d done together on his bed or in his futon before they’d broken it. It felt strangely more intimate, though he supposed that may have had more to do with the fact that he now knew she loved him back—more likely than not.

They were at an impasse, an in between stage, and the edge of a cliff. Ben both feared and looked forward to what would happen once they finally fell over it.

“What about you, Ben?” Poe asked after a while, and he was forced to bring his attention back to the conversation he’d been neglecting.

“What?”

“Would you ever do it?”

“Do what?”

His friends all threw their heads back laughing except for Rey, who also appeared to be just as confused as he was. “Would you ever partake in an orgy?”

He could feel his face turn crimson as he shook his head. “Uh… no, I’m… at least, I…” he searched for the right words to say that wouldn’t reveal his unholy deeds to Poe. “I don’t think I would. I think I’m a one person kind of guy.”

Poe shrugged. “That’s fair, I just think it’s a college right of passage to at least participate in a three way at some point in your life.”

A scoff came from Rey’s direction, and Ben finally looked over at her curiously as she took a sip of her drink. “You just think that ‘cause you’re a slut.”

“You know what? That’s fair,” Poe replied as the others howled at Rey’s statement. “Completely fair. I am a slut, but only for one guy.”

“Nice recovery,” Finn said with another laugh, then he groaned. “Not to sound dirty or anything, but it’s starting to get hot in here, I think I need a break.”

Poe chuckled lightly, but still rubbed a hand on Finn’s shoulder. “You okay, babe?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, I think I’ll step out for a minute, refill my drink and all that.”

“You know what? I’ll do that, too,” Poe replied, then he and his boyfriend stood up from the water, and the former of the two tossed Ben a wink before cocking his head in Rey’s direction.

Ben’s eyes rolled again as his friends walked out of the tub, and back into his house, then he turned to the others. “Everyone else feeling okay?”

Phasma was the first to nod. “Yeah, fine, I’ve just been praying that you’ve been using the hand you put under the water for G rated purposes.”

 _Fuck._ So she’d picked up on that after all, huh? His hand was still out of the water instantly, dragging Rey’s along with it as he showed them the very much indeed G rated activity he and Rey had partaken I’m beneath the water. “We’re just doing this, it’s nothing, I promise.”

“That’s not quite what I’d call nothing,” Hux replied as they slipped their hands back into the water. “But okay.”

Ben avoided Rey’s gaze for a moment as an awkwardness settled over the group, which was quickly abated when Rose cleared her throat, and gestured to her own empty drink. “I think I’m gonna top off mine, too. Anyone else need another drink?”

A suspicious look was shared between Rose, Phasma, and Hux, then Ben slowly caught on to what they were doing, finding himself both grateful and nervous for the space they were trying to give him. The other two quickly gave Rose a nod, then they too began to leave. As they walked out of the tub, Phasma turned back to him, and placed her hands on the edge. “There’s a point on the test about swimming pools and hot tubs, we’ll stall Poe for the next fifteen minutes, but after that, expect a crowd.”

Ben’s jaw fell open as he watched her walk away, then he turned to Rey, their eyes locked, and they promptly burst out laughing. “Our friends are terrible people,” he breathed as Phasma shut the door behind the remaining three.

“Oh they’re dirty enablers, that’s for sure,” she replied, then she slipped her hand from his, and sighed. “But I’m not sure how we’re going to do this. I don’t know much, but I don’t think it’s exactly easy to get a condom to work in water and I… don’t think it’s worth risking something happening for a bet.”

“Agreed,” Ben said, then he sighed, thinking through the ways they could possibly manage to have sex without risking something unwanted. It came to him as he was looking down at his own hand as he brought it out of the water, noticing how his fingers had pruned slightly from the minutes he’d spent holding her hand beneath the surface. “But uh… I think we can stretch the definition of intercourse a little bit for this one, don’t you?”

“How do you mean?”

“I’ll use my fingers,” Ben said, then he wiggled them in her face, causing her to splash water against his broad chest while she laughed like a hyena.

“Okay, sounds fair, but what about you?”

“We can worry about me later. They’re only giving us fifteen minutes, we can’t debate who’s going to finish first,” he told her, then he wrapped his hand around the base of her skull, his fingers weaving themselves into her dark hair. “We don’t have time.”

With that, his other hand reached for her thigh, slowly gliding up her tanned skin beneath the surface of the water, hiding what he was doing from the view of anyone else who might be peering in on them. He wasn’t worried about that, though, the only room in the house anyone could see the hot tub from was the laundry room and one of the guest bedrooms, and their friends were in the kitchen. They would be safe. He hoped they would be. Rey’s breath hitched as his fingers slowly approached the skin of the innermost portion of her thigh, and he brought his entire body closer to hers.

“God damn it,” she breathed, and at first he thought it was because he’d done something wrong, but then Rey’s good hand shot into the water, and grabbed his wrist, pulling him the remaining distance to the apex of her thighs. “Just put your hands on me, Ben.”

Ben smirked as he leaned down toward her. “As you wish,” he replied, then he slipped his fingers beneath the fabric of her suit bottoms, and began pressing one into her entrance as he brought his lips to hers.

She moaned into the kiss as he added a second finger, then began to pump them in and out of her as his thumb found her clit. He pressed down on the little bundle of nerves, making her break the kiss as she gasped from the sensation. A vague part of him wondered what this felt like for her, just how good it felt for her to have his hands all over her body as he began to place kisses on her neck.

Ben was more tempted than ever to leave a mark there, but they were now not only with Poe, but he’d be returning in ten minutes and they didn’t exactly have the clothes around to cover themselves up. Still it had her breath shaking as his fingers continued to work in and out of her. A cry left her lips after a few more seconds, and he shushed her as his lips continued to meet the skin of her neck over and over again. “Don’t make too much noise, they might hear us.”

Rey let out another moan as his fingers curled inside of her. “Ben, you can’t do this to me… and… expect me not to… _fuck!”_

She was shaking beside him now, and before she could make another noise, Ben removed himself from her neck and slanted his lips over hers again, shutting her up thoroughly as he kissed her. Rey returned the kiss in a way that made his head spin, her hands tangling themselves in his hair as she held him tightly to her. Heat rose within him, his cock growing hard as Rey’s tongue swept along the edge of his lower lip, the breeze ghosting over the hot water they sat in doing nothing to cool him down or turn him off as she kissed him in a way that made him feel like _he_ was the one being brought to orgasm instead.

The intensity of the kiss only built as Ben brought her close, his fingers picking up their pace as he took control of their kiss, pressing her back into the wall of the tub as she moaned against him. She only pulled away once after that, telling him to go faster since they didn’t have much time. His response was to snort as he obeyed her command, then he whispered, “As you wish,” into her ear. “But we'd also be done by now if you stopped talking.”

Rey laughed, then she kissed him again, and as they kissed and his fingers continued to work at her entrance, Ben forgot about the time constraint, he forgot about his friends, his parents, the bet, and the rest of the world entirely. All of his attention was devoted to Rey and showing her in every way except by word of mouth that he loved her.

“Ben, I’m…” she panted, breaking their kiss again.

“You’re what, Rey?” He replied, then he was kissing her again roughly as he continued to fuck her with his fingers.

She was trembling in his hands as he brought her to the edge. A shaky moan left her lips against his, vibrating against his mouth in an unexpectedly pleasant way. He broke the kiss again. “What, Rey?”

Another swear left her as she tried to warn him. “I’m gonna— _fuck!”_

She came around his fingers with a shout that was only just drowned out by the swirling waters of the tub and the cool November breeze that blew past them. He felt her shaking around him, her hips bucking into his hand as his thumb continued to glide over her now oversensitive clit, working her through her orgasm until she came to herself again.

Hesitantly, he pulled his fingers out of her, breathing hard as he leaned back against his wall as they both came down from the thrill of what they’d just done. Rey’s eyes were still closed as she let her head fall back against the rim of the tub, and she sighed. “That was… that was probably the best orgasm I’ve ever had in my entire life.”

Ben smirked. “Glad I could help.”

“It’s not fair that you didn’t get to finish, though, I’ll have to return the favor for you later,” she replied, her eyes finally opening as she reached back for her still half full drink, and took a sip.  

The sight of it did nothing good for the erection tenting his pants. Or maybe it did everything right. He couldn’t decide. “I can’t say I’d ever say no to that,” he replied after a few seconds, then he leaned forward, noticing the hazel in her eyes again as she stared at him. They were so beautiful— _she_ was so beautiful in the dim glow of the Christmas lights. “Rey…” His hand reached up out of the water, and brushed back a piece of her hair. “I…”

“Yeah?” she asked, leaning forward in anticipation as his hand sank beneath the swirling surface again.

“I need to tell you so—“

The back door burst open at that precise moment, and Ben pulled away from Rey at lightning fast speed. Poe and Finn were the first ones out the door, and both of them were giggling stupidly as they engaged in a tickle fight on the way back to the hot tub. At some point, one of them must’ve yelled out for him or Rey, but he didn’t notice as he avoided her gaze. For the first time, he didn’t feel completely relieved at the interruption. If he did feel it, it was because he probably shouldn’t tell her when they had a time constraint in his parents’ hot tub. He’d have to tell her somewhere else, in the right place, the right time, and if he was feeling dramatic enough, the right lighting.

The group stayed out there for another hour before they all decided to turn in for the night. Ben managed to convince Rey to spend it at his place, reminding her she had a favor to return with a wink, and she’d laughed at him. “Just let me get my stuff, and I’ll be back here in twenty,” she promised him, making sure Poe wasn’t watching before she pressed a kiss on his cheek, then headed off down the street toward her own house.

Ben changed out of his suit, and waited for what felt like hours for her to get back, tossing and turning in his bed until he heard the doorbell ring, and for a split second he thought it might be his parents at the door for some reason—though they’d promised they’d be out incredibly late, with a wink— until he came to and realized Rey had returned. With that in mind he hauled ass out of his bedroom, nearly pulling Spider-Man maneuvers to get himself back down the stairs and to his front door.

He was very nearly out of breath when he opened it to see Rey standing there with a backpack slung over her shoulder and a smirk on her face. “I think I owe you a favor.”

“I think you’re right,” he replied, then she stepped inside and the door swung shut behind her. Once the door was fully closed, he reached into his pocket, then he held out a twenty dollar bill in his hand as he grinned at her.

Rey’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “What’s this?”

“Question ninety seven: ‘paid or been paid for a sexual act,’” he reminded her, gently putting the money in her hand. A sense of pride filled him at the idea he’d come up with while she’d been gone. “I figured this technically counted… and it’s a lot sweeter than actual prostitution.”

She laughed, then she looked down at the twenty again. “Okay, but I’m giving this back to you when we’re done for the night.”

The smile on Ben’s face was the widest he’d ever given anyone. “Deal,” he replied, then he took her hand in his, and led her up the stairs to his bedroom to defile the last shreds of Saint solo’s existence.

Ben woke up the next morning without a lick of clothing on save for his own bedsheets, and a warmth pressed against his chest that could only belong to one person. Rey’s hair tickled his nose as he buried his face into it, his hand clenching slightly around her breast where he must’ve unintentionally found his grip in the night. He wasn’t exactly complaining about this of course, her chest was easily one of the best parts of her if he was just looking at her physically.

His actual favorite part of Rey were her eyes and all the expressions they held within them. They were the most beautiful pair he’d ever seen, and he found himself looking forward to the part in the mornings they woke up together where she’d open them and smile when she saw him. This morning would be no different.

Ben’s other hand had gone numb from where Rey was using his arm as a pillow, which he didn’t mind at all as he leaned forward, and pressed a kiss to the back of her head. She stirred against him, humming quietly as she slowly began to come out of sleep. A soft chuckle left him as he rested his forehead against the back of her head, then he sighed. “Good morning.”

She didn’t say it back, and he realized she wasn’t actually awake yet. Rey was still sound asleep, her breathing still perfectly even as she rested beside him. “Hey, sleepy head,” he said quietly, then she stirred again, and he could tell she was awake this time. “Wake up.”

“Go to hell.”

“I love you, too,” he said sarcastically, then he groaned.

“I’ll kill you.”

“How?”

“I’ll cut you open with a butter knife. A dull one.”

“All butter knives are dull, Rey.”

“... an extra dull one.”

Ben laughed loudly into his pillow as his arms clutched her a little more tightly. At least, the one he still had some semblance of feeling in did. “Rey, I can’t feel my arm.”

All she did in response was snort, and adjust herself more comfortably—for her at least—over his arm. Ben groaned as the pins and needles stabbing his bicep worsened. “Rey.”

“I’m not moving.”

“Oh, is that so?” He replied, then with the hand that wasn’t trapped beneath her, he began to search for the side of her waist where he knew she was the most ticklish.

“Ben Solo, don’t you _dare,_ ” she breathed, placing a hand cautiously over his.

Another dark chuckle that bordered on an evil laugh left him, shaking the entire bed as they sat there waiting in anticipation for whatever choice Rey would make. “All you have to do is get off my arm, and there won’t be a problem.”

Still Rey didn’t move, and not even when Ben counted to three, not even when his fingers began to tickle her skin and she was shrieking from laughter, or when she completely turned around—but made sure to stay on his arm—as she writhed under his hands. “ _Ben!”_ she cried, though she was laughing in delight the entire time as he moved his hand up, tickling her neck, and she pinched his hand between her head and shoulder.

For now, he was out of commission, but she still had free hands, and she used them to retaliate as Ben yelled and tried to escape her. Neither one of them seemed to care how much noise they were making as they began a wrestling match on his bed. Despite their lack of clothing thanks to the previous night’s activities, it never managed to take the turn for the sexual. That may have been because it didn’t have time to, though.

Thirty seconds into their wrestling match, a loud knock sounded on the door, then Ben and Rey experienced about five seconds of pure horror that seemed to go by in slow motion. The knob of the door turned, and Ben hurriedly shouted for whoever it was not to come in. He covered them both with his bedsheet hurriedly as he looked on the ground for something they could cover themselves with. Their t-shirts from the night before still lay sprawled out beside his bed from where they’d tossed them aside, and at approximately the speed of light, he snatched them both off the floor as the person outside the door asked, “What’s going on in there?” and his face blanched when he realized it was his father who was outside.

Ben handed Rey one of the shirts, and they both quickly covered themselves just seconds before the door opened, and his father popped his head in there. “Are you kids al—oh.”

He had no doubt that despite him and Rey both being covered, the scene was suspicious to the point where his father has definitely figured out what was going on, and had turned bright red as a result. Nervously, Ben glanced over at the girl in his bed, to find that she definitely looked like he’d just been fucking her hard into the mattress, even though what had actually been going down had been much more innocent. After all, he and Rey had been engaging in wrestling matches for years.

“Dad, we were just… I know what it looks like, but we were just wrestling.”

At that, the horror on his dad’s face became a bona fide smirk. “I’m sure you were,” he said teasingly.

“ _Dad!_ ”

Han laughed obnoxiously, and hard enough that he had to place his hands on his knees and lean against the door frame for support. Ben rolled his eyes, and stared at his father exasperatedly as he waited for him to get over himself. “Are you done?”

After a moment, his dad managed to compost himself, then he straightened his posture. “I’m done, I swear,” he promised, then he sighed. “Just… just use protection.”

“We weren’t doing that!” Ben protested.

“I’m sure that’s why there’s a condom wrapper on your floor, Ben,” Han said, then he glanced pointedly at the little metallic wrapper that Ben had indeed left out in the open for anyone to see. _Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck._

Ben’s jaw fell open, then as his father walked away from the door, he had a last minute thought. “Don’t tell mom anything! I’ll never hear the end of it!”

“Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.”

“Don’t tell mom _what_?” a distant voice asked in response, and Ben could feel himself turning white as a sheet as he collapsed against his mattress, and Rey absolutely howled with laughter beside him.

Ben shook his head as Rey buried her face in her hands as she shook with laughter. “I’m glad you’re amused.”

“Oh, I’m not looking forward to being tormented by your parents about this,” she told him, then she sighed as she leaned back against the wall. “We’ve still got nearly an entire week before we head back to school. They’re going to be a nightmare, but that was just… I don’t know, he was cool about it. Do you know what my parents would’ve done? My dad acts like we live in the dark ages sometimes.”

“They would’ve probably killed me,” Ben mused. “Then you. Then me again.”

“My point is, as long as he doesn’t ask any questions about it, it won’t be that bad.”

Oh, but it would. He’d told his father he was in love with Rey and very conveniently left out the part about the bet. His father had no idea—as far as he could tell—that he hadn’t been a virgin before that night. With the combined knowledge that Ben had slept with Rey and that he was in love with her, he knew exactly what kind of conclusions Han would be drawing. _Oh, he was so fucked._

“I’ll be back,” Ben replied, then he swung his legs over the side of his bed, and grabbed the first pair of sweatpants he could find, not bothering with any sort of underwear as he hurriedly dressed himself, then rushed off to find his father before it was too late. Rey barely even got the chance to try and protest that he stay. At least, that’s what he thought she said as he ran out of the room, he couldn’t be sure.

Ben followed the sound of clinking glasses and voices until he reached their dining room to find that his friends had already joined his parents at the table for breakfast, much to his horror. His father was smirking up at him knowingly as he approached the table, and his friends fell silent. It became quickly apparent just what they’d been talking about, but he trusted them enough not to say anything unless they were certain he wanted them to. He’d only known them all a few months, but already he’d trust those three with his life.

“Dad, can I talk to you for a second?” he asked, cocking his head in the direction of the kitchen off to the side.

Han’s smirk only intensified as he excused himself, stood up from the table, and nodded before he followed his son into the very same kitchen where he’d confessed his love for Rey days earlier. Once they were inside, Ben shut the door behind them, then he rounded on his father. “Look, I can’t explain this easily, but we’re not… she doesn’t know.”

“She doesn’t know what, Ben?”

“That I love her, she doesn’t know that I love her… we’re just… we’ve been…” Oh Ben wanted to die from how awkward this was. He wanted to drop absolutely fucking dead and never be seen again. “God damn it we’re just friends with benefits. We’re fooling around. No feelings attached. Well, there weren’t when we started.”

Realization dawned on his father’s face, then he stood there, nodding and processing what his son had just told him for a moment before he snorted his laughter all over again. “Good god, kid.”

“I know, I know.”

“I thought there was something off about you when I saw you again, but…” He shook his head. “Your mother’s damn intuition.”

“Mom _knows?_ ”

“Ben, she knew the minute you and Rey stepped out of the car. She’s got eyes, and she might be able to read minds, but don’t tell her I said that.”

This time, it was Ben who snorted. “That makes sense, actually.”

“We has a talk about it last night. We’re both fine with it, Ben, and we support you.”

“Are you sure?” Ben asked, then he spared a glance back at the dining room, where he could now hear Rey’s voice chiming in on the conversation as the laughter picked up again on the other side of the door.

Han shrugged. “We’ve both always loved that girl, so… we’re glad it’s her.”

Ben found himself smiling for the first time in minutes. “Me too, dad.”

“Now you just make sure you _tell her._ ”

“I will, I promise,” Ben said, then he looked back at the kitchen door. “So were those pancakes I saw on the table?”

His father clapped a hand on his back, then the two of them walked back out into the dining room, and Ben searched for the only empty seat at the table… which conveniently happened to be the seat next to Rey. He gave her a teasing grin as he motioned to the chair. “This seat taken?”

She shook her head at him, giggling slightly as he sat down beside her. “Only by the invisible man.”

“Shit, I just sat on him.”

“Kinky,” Rey whispered under her breath, causing all their friends to laugh while his parents remained blissfully oblivious as she began to put butter on her pancakes.

Ben laughed in response, then he looked over at his parents as the conversation picked up again. He locked eyes with his mother, who threw him a quick wink, then they all dug into breakfast. Maybe his father has been right, they did support him, and it was going to be okay—it was going to be absolutely wonderful, all he had to do was tell her how he felt. If only he could get over that one last obstacle standing in his way; _fear._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #Ben Solo is a massive slut.


	12. Twenty Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, as you can probably tell from the chapter title, they... did it... ALSO THIS IS ALMOST OVER SO I AM QUAKING. Anyway, this chapter came out way too quickly and I'm posting this on a highly visible library computer screen so I'm outing myself to everyone who walks by but here goes. Sorry to my librarian friends.

Over the next several days, he meant to tell her. Really, he did, but by the time Thursday rolled around he realized he was just stalling as the turkey went around the table on Thanksgiving. Both of his parents and all of his friends always pestered him about it whenever they got him alone, and Rey—by mercy of god—seemed consistently oblivious to it all. Ben’s head and heart were both aching with the desire to say something, to scream it out into the air that he was in love with her.   

A breeze was drifting in from the coast as they sat around a table outside passing various food items around as they talked, told jokes, and laughed about various things. At one point the conversation drifted to the next day—Black Friday—and what everyone would be getting each other for Christmas. Ben had been unable to control the way he’d looked over at Rey and simply started thinking through gift ideas. 

Already the last four days had been intense. He and Rey had taken the test again the night before after they’d taken a bit of a drive. They’d knocked off the point for “traveled one hundred or more miles for the primary purpose of sexual intercourse,” in the passenger seat of his car a hundred miles away from his home somewhere in the extremely rural countryside. They’d pulled over off of a small highway with not a camera in sight, and Ben could remember so clearly how quiet it was around them. He could hear the birds chirping in his ears as he looked over at Rey after he put the car in park, then before either of them could say another word, he crossed the space between them and kissed her. 

They’d defiled his car a new after that, and Ben had been massively disappointed to find out that he was finally running out of condoms. Poe would be proud, but thoughts of Poe brought up thoughts about the bet, and every time Ben thought about the very near end of the semester, a lump formed in his throat at the thought of losing what he had with Rey. 

On the Wednesday night before thanksgiving when they’d taken the test again, his heart had broken a little more when Rey suggested they both cross off the “booty call with someone you’re not in a relationship with” point, and he was reminded that while it certainly felt like they were in one sometimes, they were still somehow just friends. It felt like a knife to the chest, but he still managed to have a twenty nine on the test, which meant there were only three more things to cross off before he matched with Poe, and four before he beat him. The task seemed daunting, but every time he looked at her, he became confident that they could do anything together. Especially one another. 

This made things interesting when just an hour later they crossed off “had sex in a bed belonging to neither you nor your partner” by stealing away into Hux’s room while he was out. Not wanting Hux to hate them forever, they laid a blanket over the duvet, then they barely held themselves together as they laughed their asses off at every scenario of Hux catching them that came to mind. It occurred to Ben at some point that they always laughed whenever they had sex, there were always smiles on their faces, and sometimes they even came while cackling like hyenas. The thought had him smiling as he rocked into her that night. 

As he sat at the table on his parents’ back deck, another slight grin twitched at the corners of his mouth as he thought up the other point they’d knocked off when Finn had accidentally walked in on them. He hadn’t quite seen anything since the two had left their clothes almost entirely on—they’d learned from the incident with Han—but he’d walked in and they’d been ignorant of it for long enough to knock off the “had sex with a nonparticipating third party in the same room,” point. 

Rey had been on top, and she’d only stopped grinding down on Ben when he put his hands on her shoulders, and told her Finn was standing in the doorway. The three of them had all turned pure crimson for a few seconds before their very stunned friend murmured, “I’ll come back later,” then he walked away, and she collapsed on top of him in a fit of giggles. That had easily been one of his favorite memories, having Rey on top of him shaking with laughter while he was still half buried inside of her was something he wasn’t going to forget anytime soon. 

The slight grin on his face became a full one that he disguised with a half-closed fist as he passed food onto Rey, who was now sitting beside him. “You alright?” she asked him, concern in her eyes. 

“I was just thinking about last night.”

Rey quickly shushed him, though the corners of her own mouth twitched up into a smile. “You can’t talk about that here.”

“Why? Finn already saw it.”

“For one thing  _ Poe,  _ for another  _ your fucking parents,  _ Ben,” she whispered as she put a few slices of turkey onto her plate. “It’s only two more weeks, I’m sure we can keep quiet about it until then.”

Only two more weeks. Christ. Where had the time gone? It felt like he’d been kissed for the first time in his now broken futon days ago. Now he’d… he’d experienced so much more than he had ever thought. A sense of sorrow filled him as it always did when he thought about the end, but this time when his eyes met Rey’s again, he saw his own internal thoughts about the situation reflected back at him. It would seem that she was also not delighted by the prospect of how little time they had left. He had half a mind to ask her then if at the very least she wanted to keep going, but he was interrupted by Poe himself. 

“So when’s your first final, guys?” Poe asked innocently to their entire group. 

A chorus of six groans followed his statement, then Ben answered him first. “Mine’s on the fourth. Last one is on the tenth.”

Rey nodded. “Yeah, me too,” she said, then she gave him a soft smile. “Looks like we’ll be in the library together  _ a lot more _ , then.”

Even though Poe was sitting right next to them, Ben was about to have a stroke. The sound of more time in a library with her sent a thrill down his spine—and straight to his cock—as he thought of all of the things they’d already done there. In that library, they’d done everything short of having sex out of fear of what would happen if Holdo caught them. Well, they’d only ever had heated makeout sessions, but still he was amazed that in all they’d done together, they hadn’t yet managed that. 

“Yeah, I think we will.”

“Lucky assholes, my first one’s on the third,” Hux grumbled. 

“Okay but when’s your last one, babe?” Phasma asked, propping her head on her hand. 

Hux’s cheeks flushed the color of his hair. “The fifth,” he admitted. 

“What the fuck, Hux? You’re done in two days?” Poe asked, sounding bewildered as his eyes went wide. “Fuck you.”

All Hux did in response was smirk, but before he could say anything else, Phasma interrupted him. “Did you expect anything less of him?”

Again, the entire table burst into laughter, then Poe sighed. “I can’t believe the semester’s already almost over. We’re already halfway through our freshman year.”

“God, I sometimes forget you’re all freshman,” Phasma said, then she reached over, and pinched Rose’s cheek. “You’re so adorable.”

Rose shot Phasma a glare that had the blonde howling with laughter as she pulled away. “You’re only two years older than me, you know.”

“I’m more than aware, just trust me, you’ll love making fun of freshman next year. It’s better than heroin.”

“And what would you know about heroin, Phasma?” Poe asked with a devilish grin on his face. 

All Phasma did in response was take a sip of her wine, which Ben’s parents had let her have once she proved she was actually of age to drink—much to his chagrin. The others all snickered at her indifference to her own actions. It wasn’t exactly surprising. Phasma had been pretty nonchalant about what she’d done all along, from the moment she’d revealed that she was the one with the lowest score on the rice purity test. 

“Eh, it probably doesn’t faze you much, does it,  Phas?” Poe asked, slicing his turkey. “What was your score on the rice purity test again? A thirteen?”

“It’s a twelve now.”

“Jesus Christ, phasma, what did you do?”

“More like… what  _ didn’t  _ I do?”

Poe simply chuckled, then he looked across the table at Ben. “Now yours I remember. Eighty one. I feel like it’s dropped a few since then. You’ve gotta be at least a seventy five now with how much I’ve seen you cuddling with Rey.”

Ben shrugged. “Probably, I haven’t exactly taken the test since then,” he lied, thinking about the twenty eight he’d had the last time he’d taken the test, which now was likely a twenty six thanks to What he and Rey had done afterward. He now matched Poe, and the boy sitting across from him had no idea. 

“God, that was the best day of my life,” Poe breathed, then he set down his fork, and leaned back in his chair, the autumn breeze ruffling his shirt as he exhaled. “I haven’t laughed that hard in ages. Your reactions to everything on the test? Hysterical.”

“I’m glad my misery amused you,” Ben replied, thinking about all the things he’d done on the test that he’d initially squeaked at or had never even heard of. So much had changed since then. He was a far cry from the innocent, virginal boy he’d been when Rey kissed him for the first time on his futon. Again that nostalgia started to fill him, taking root in the pit of his stomach and filling the rest of his body. 

Poe grinned. “Me on the other hand, I think I’m a bit done knocking off points. I’ve…” he glanced over at Finn, and his eyes softened. “I’ve found the right guy to fool around with.”

Finn blushed, and so did Ben as he watched them kiss shortly and sweetly before Poe pulled away, and looked at Ben. “But you on the other hand, you’ve got a whole lot of living to do,” he said, then he swallowed. “And don’t you dare forget to do it, okay?”

Taking in a deep, slightly shaky breath as he caught onto Poe’s meaning, he nodded. “Okay,” he replied, then he spared a glance at Rey finding she was looking at Poe in confusion. “I’ll do it, just… I’m gonna wait till finals are over.”

“Trust me, Ben, you won’t want to wait.”

“Ben, what is he talking about?” Rey asked curiously. 

Ben didn’t know how to answer her, and feeling panic rising in his chest, he looked to Poe for an answer. Mercifully, his friend came through rather swiftly. “Something good,” he said, then the corners of his mouth twitched into a smile as his eyes locked onto Rey’s. “But all jokes aside, nothing’s going to be good until finals are over. We’re all going to die.”

“Oh you think it’s bad  _ now? _ ” Hux asked, then he folded his arms on the table. “It gets worse every  _ single  _ year. I swear to you I hate every semester more.”

“Great, thanks for instilling a will to live in the youth, Hux,” Phasma muttered. 

A groan left Rose as she collapsed against the back of her chair. “This is gonna be a bloodbath, isn’t it?”

“Well, we’ve got about a week before finals start once the break ends,” Ben said, then he thought for a moment. “That gives us seven days to prepare ourselves when we get back.”

Poe smirked as he pointed to Ben. “I don’t know about you, but I plan on relying on the age old tactic of waiting until the last conceivable minute to study.”

“Me too,” Ben admitted, then the entire table took turns admitting their study plans. 

Ben kept looking over at Rey as the time passed, watching as she laughed at a joke, or smiled at something charming Poe had said, and thinking hard on how that damned smile was making him feel. There were butterflies in his stomach as there always were every time he looked at her, and a part of him wondered if that was what it meant to be in love with someone. Did it mean that every time he looked at her, he’d feel like he was floating? Every time she smiled would the butterflies be fluttering within him?

He was so lost in thought, he didn’t notice that the dinner had ended until his mother was ordering everyone to help bring their dishes into the kitchen, and his friends were pushing back their chairs. He was eventually brought to attention by Leia’s voice calling out for him. “Ben? Earth to Ben?”

It was like a bucket of cold water had been poured over his head. Instantly, before he was even fully aware of what was going on, he was on his feet. “Yeah, mom?”

“We’re putting away dinner, you mind pulling your head out of the clouds and helping out?”

Ben quickly nodded, his gaze avoiding Rey’s as she giggled beside him as he reached for his plate, and began to follow the group into the house. He was very nearly upon the door, when suddenly his mother called to him again, and he froze as he watched the others walk safely inside. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what she was going to talk with him about, and suddenly a chill came over the air that had nothing to do with the season or the breeze. 

She waited until the last of his friends shut the door, then she crossed her arms over her chest. “So how’s the confession going?” she asked, lowering the glasses she was wearing on her nose as she looked at him. 

Ben swallowed. “I’m working on it.”

“ _ Ben. _ ”

“Mom, this is fucking terrifying. Give me time.”

“Ben, it’s been nearly a week. You’ve got to tell her eventually, I want to live to see your wedding.”

His breath left him in a rush at that last word. “A  _ wedding?”  _ he cried in disbelief. “Mom, I’m nineteen.”

Leia shook her head. “I didn’t mean now, I just meant eventually. And at the rate you’re going, I’ll be dead before you even ask her on a date,” she told him, pointing an accusatory finger at his chest. “Your father approves, I approve, and your friends clearly love you and so does she. So quit letting fear stop you.”

There was another moment of hesitation before Ben’s shoulders relaxed, and he sighed. “I will, I just need to find the right moment.”

“Be careful, or the right moment will pass you by, Ben,” she warned him, then his mother walked into the house, leaving him stunned on their back deck as the autumn breeze blew his hair out of his face. 

He lay awake in his bed that night thinking of his mother’s words as Rey slept beside him with her head resting soundly over his chest. Fear settled into his veins as he thought that the right moment might’ve passed him by, and as he looked down at Rey’s sleeping form beside him, he suddenly felt a wave of guilt at the thought. Swallowing nervously, he kept his voice low as he spoke. “Rey, are you awake?”

All that answered him were her even breaths as she seemingly slept on, then he sighed as he began to stroke her hair from where her head rested on his chest. With knowledge in mind, Ben took in a deep breath. “Why do I only ever have the courage to talk to you about these things when you’re asleep?” He asked, fighting back a chuckle so he wouldn’t risk waking her. “I really need to try doing this sometime when you’re awake. You deserve that.”

She shifted then in her sleep, her fingers splaying out on his chest as she held him in her unconscious state. Ben’s breath hitched as he feared for a moment that she might be awake, but he still continued talking. His mother had been right. He needed to tell her, and it was worth the risk that she might actually hear him because of that. “Rey, I don’t want to stop this when the semester’s over. I… I don’t know if I ever want to stop, cause…” That stupid fucking lump in his throat began to knot itself again, making his eyes feel a little misty as he blinked a few times. “Cause… these last few months have been the best of my life, and… I don’t want to let them go, Rey. I never do. There’s… there’s something else I need to tell you, but… I’m gonna wait till you’re awake so you can hear it. I made a mistake when I told you last time.”

It was true, he had. Telling her how he felt when they were both drunk and she’d passed out had been the coward’s way. He’d been so afraid of his own feelings, so new to what they really were, and maybe he still didn’t fully understand them then, but he understood them now. They were the clearest thing he’d experienced in his life. Ben still wasn’t sure exactly when he’d tell her what he felt in full, but he knew that when he did he’d be sure of what he said, he’d know what he was talking about. 

Ben kissed the top of her head, then he laid his head back into the pillow. “But whatever happens, I’m… you’re my best friend, and that’s never going to change.”

A yawn escaped him then, and he let his eyes drift shut as the exhaustion from the day-- from the week began to take over his mind. “Anyway… Good night, Rey… Even though I told you that... twenty minutes ago…” he murmured softly, then the hand he had stroking her hair went slack as he too fell into the clutches of sleep. 

Three days later it was Sunday, and they were all packing into Ben’s car for the road trip home. He still hadn’t told Rey he loved her. It was always too crowded, too quiet, or just too something and not the right moment. His mind always made up excuses, and he always hated himself for it. Why the fuck couldn’t he just tell her? 

While he packed his things into his own trunk, he looked up at Rey as she hugged his parents goodbye with Poe at her side as the two long time friends said goodbye to the people who were basically their extended family. The morning was rather cold, and their breath misted in the frosty air as they embraced his parents. He watched his mother’s arms wrap around Rey, though her eyes met his as she mouthed, “Tell her,” very clearly, the words visible even from a distance. 

Ben’s cheeks turned bright red as he walked over, figuring his mother would absolutely murder him no matter how badly she wanted a daughter in law before she let him leave without saying goodbye. As Rey and Poe pulled away from his parents, he cleared his throat. “Why don’t you guys go ahead and get settled in the car? I don’t want my parents embarrassing you more than they already have.”

“Me? Embarrass your friends?” Han asked, clutching his chest in mock scandal. “Never!”

“Dad, you’re doing it now, shut up,” Ben replied, though he was smiling, and his friends were laughing as they patted Ben’s shoulders, and walked away. “Guess I’ll be seeing you.”

“You better tell her, Ben,” his mother said. 

“I will,” he promised as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders. “But it’ll take a miracle.”

“Nonsense,” Han replied as Ben pulled away from his mother, then his father’s arms were surrounding him, making him feel small like a kid again despite the years that had allowed him to surpass his dad in height. “You just need to be brave for about ten seconds. Then you can be a chicken again.”

A pained laugh left Ben, then he looked back at the car, where all of his friends were already sitting comfortably inside. Hux, Phasma, and Rose had left in the van nearly an hour earlier, and the others had only stayed behind because it was where they’d grown up and Ben’s parents would’ve probably killed them all if they’d left in the wee hours of the morning. Rey, Finn, and Poe were engaging in a conversation that was quickly devolving into some sort of play fighting, and he laughed at the sight before he looked back at his parents once more. “I think I can manage that. Wish me luck.”

“Good luck, Ben,” they both said at the same time, then Ben laughed again as he took a step back, then he walked over to his car. He gave his parents one last look—finding that Han was giving him a thumbs up, which made him smile something stupid—then he opened his door, and sat down into the driver’s seat before he put his keys in the ignition. 

“Everyone ready for another six hour drive?” he asked, then the group cheered loudly as Ben started the car, and pulled out of his too long driveway. 

They’d left the neighborhood and been on the road for a good five minutes in pure silence before someone finally cleared their throat. “You okay, Ben?” Finn asked from the back seat. 

“I’m fine,” he insisted, though he was definitely not fine emotionally. He was still too torn over how and when he’d tell Rey he loved her. “Why?”

“Well, it’s been four years and you haven’t turned on the radio, so it’s a little… odd,” Rey said, her voice waking him from his stupor.  

Ben startled in his seat, then he quickly turned on the radio, filling his car with the guitar riff of Led Zeppelin's  _ Immigrant Song.  _ They pulled out onto the highway a few seconds later, and while the rest of his friends were screaming the lyrics, he could feel Rey’s eyes boring into his skull. When he looked over, he could see the concern filling them, and he took in a deep breath. “What?” 

“Nothing, there just… something seems… _ off _ about you today,” she told him, then she swallowed. “Can you tell me what’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong, Rey,” he replied, his voice almost snappish as the denial washed over him. “I’m fine.”

“Are you nervous?”

Ben froze, his knuckles going white on the steering wheel as fear coursed through his veins. Had she somehow figured it out? Did she know what he desperately wanted to tell her? Or worse… had his parents betrayed him? Had his friends—

“About finals?” Rey added a moment later, sending a shock of relief through his system. 

It still took him another minute to fully compose himself from his panic attack, though the fact that he’d freaked out like that at the mere thought of her knowing about it was telling. He’d thought he was ready. He wasn’t.  _ You just need to be brave for about ten seconds.  _ In his current state, Ben couldn’t even manage five. “Yeah, finals. I’m scared shitless.”

“Me too,” Rey admitted, running a hand through her hair. “Especially fucking chemistry.” She looked at him again, this time a coy hint was behind her smile. “Mind helping me out again?”

Ben felt his heart rate slowly beginning to calm down, then he nodded. “Rey, you never have to ask,” he reminded her as  _ Immigrant Song  _ faded away to a song off of his dad’s least favorite Fleetwood Mac album,  _ Songbird _ . “I’m always gonna be there if you need my help.”

Rey fell quiet after that, and so did he, letting the soft melody of the song fill the car as Finn and Poe sang along to it, their voices ever so slightly off key. A smile broke out on Ben’s face though at the sight, and he thought that maybe if Poe could tell Finn he liked him, he could tell Rey how he felt about her. Eventually, at least, his panic attack from earlier was a sure sign that he’d pass out if he tried to tell her now, but he’d promised people he’d say something, and she deserved to know the truth. 

The car sped through the distance between his hometown and the university, and he couldn’t help but notice that as they drove further and further inland, snow began to coat the ground around them—and as they passed under cloud cover, Ben’s windshield— in a thin, white layer. He’d seen snow before, they’d experienced plenty of it growing up, but somehow it still managed to be just as enchanting every time. Even when the roads became a bit icy and he had to slow down, he was still mystified by it. 

“Oh, it’s winter now, isn’t it?” Rey murmured as the snow cover around them grew thicker and thicker, and salt covered the icy roads, making crunching noises beneath Ben’s tires. “I bet it’ll be freezing when we get to campus.”

“You bet your ass it will be!” Poe shouted from the back seat, leaning forward so his head poked out between them. “The campus is up in the mountains and we’ve been steadily climbing in altitude. We’re going to become human popsicles.”

“Think the campus will close down this week because of it?” Rey asked, her question reminding Ben of the times their high school had closed down because of too much snowfall. 

Ben shook his head. “I doubt it. They’re used to this shit here. We’ll never get out of class because of snow again, I promise.”

A groan left the other three passengers in the car as they slumped back into their seats. “Thanks for spoiling the fun, Ben,” Poe grumbled as his arms crossed over his chest. 

“You’re welcome,” Ben replied sarcastically, giving Poe a wink in the front mirror, then he looked back out the window as they passed a sign that read, “Naboo, 20 Miles.” 

Rey breathed a sigh of relief. “We’re almost home.”

“You’re gonna wish we weren’t once we’re back there. It’ll all be down hill come finals week,” Finn reminded them, then they heard a smacking sound, and a cry of, “ _ Ow! _ ” Before Poe burst into obnoxious laughter that infected the entire car. 

The remainder of the drive was much more lighthearted than the first half had been. They traded jokes, sang, and laughed like they weren’t all about to die when finals rolled around the very next week. At some point, he and Rey started to plan their schedules around when they’d study for their finals. They’d even planned some group study sessions with all of their friends, which would take place in a fair mix of both their dorm room and the library. Poe joined in on that conversation since he and Ben had a class together, and they decided he would join the other two a couple of the nights that they studied together. 

The prospect of attending study sessions with Poe made him nervous; a little shaky even. He’d already told his friend too much by admitting he felt something for Rey. It hadn’t even been the confession that he loved her, but he had no doubt that Poe had suspected the truth of it, or found out from the others exactly how deeply in love with her Ben was. He wouldn’t be able to keep the whole truth—bet and all—secret from his friend much longer. At the moment, he was a volcano, magma building within him and just waiting for the moment it could punch through the surface and explode. 

Ben remained that way for the next several days. Once they’d pulled into the freezing cold parking lot of their snow covered university, everything had descended into a stress addled mess. Their professors were all cracking down as they entered the home stretch of the semester, and the friends, though still amicable, had started to grow crabby with even one another. Occasionally someone would snap, then quickly apologize to whoever they’d snapped at before they resumed their work during group study sessions, but other than that they were peaceful, or they just sat in a terribly distressed silence. 

Phasma and Hux barely spoke to them at all. It wasn’t because they hated them, Phas promised, it was just that their finals were so much more intensive and they didn’t want to stress out their younger friends more than they already had. Ben missed them, Hux’s honesty and phasma’s dry humor tended to be his day makers even when they were embarrassing him, but he understood wholeheartedly why they decided to study the way they did. 

Rose and Rey spent a lot of time studying together as well. When she wasn’t studying with him, she was studying with her roommate, though sometimes they both joined him in the library’s group study rooms for a binge study session along with the occasional presence of Finn and Poe. 

They all became so busy so quickly, that thoughts about Rey and the bet and telling her how he felt became background noise. They were no longer his biggest stressors as finals week really began to loom over them, and the pressure really began to crank itself up to an eleven. Before they knew it, it was Monday, December third, and it was just the two of them alone in a group study room on the quiet floor of the library, the silence surrounding them deafening as they bent over their textbooks. 

It felt like the anxiety in the room was an entity of its own, a dark sort of demon that stared them down with promises that no matter what they did, they would fail. As the hours passed and the clock struck midnight, Ben still didn’t feel like he understood his materials any better. His hands were clawing into his hair, his knuckles were white as he fought back a scream, and when he looked over at Rey, he could see she wasn’t faring much better. In fact, she looked like she was doing worse off than he was. 

The sight of his best friend looking so miserable instantly brought him out of his own head, and he slowly shut his textbook—but he made sure he remembered what page number he’d left off on—before he turned in his swivel chair to face her. He cleared his throat, and she didn’t look up, she only continued to stare down at the book as she had been for the past several nights that they’d been doing this, her stress spilling out into the room. “Rey,” he said quietly, not wanting to startle her too much. 

She was shaking when she looked up at him, and he could see tears in her eyes as she swallowed back a lump in her throat. “What?” she croaked. 

Ben scooted his chair over to her without another thought. “Come here,” he said, then he wrapped his arms around her waist, and as she returned his embrace she buried her face in his neck, letting loose a series of sobs that damn near broke his heart as he wondered just what about this could be so bad that it did this to her. 

“Do you need to take a break?”

“I can’t…”

“Do you need to, Rey?”

Eventually, she nodded, and he continued to rock her gently in his arms, shushing her as she sobbed into his neck. “Hey, it’s gonna be okay,” he said softly. “You’re gonna be okay, I promise.”

“I’m not,” she replied tightening her grip around his waist. “I’m really not.”

“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” That was definitely not a platonic thing to call his best friend, but he was beyond caring at that point. Rey was in pain, and he couldn’t stand to let that happen. No matter what, even if it meant he failed all of his finals, he would make sure she didn’t suffer. He could promise her that much. 

Rey sniffled against his neck as another weak sob wracked her throat. “Everything… I just… I feel like I’m about to collapse,” she breathed, holding onto him a bit more tightly. 

“Why? Is something going on?” he asked, then one of his hands began to gently stroke her hair as she cried into his skin, wet hot tears cooling against him the second they hit the open air. All she did in response was sob again, and Ben’s other hand began to trace circles into her shoulder as he tried his hardest to bring her some sense of peace. “Hey… it’s going to be okay. Just tell me what’s going on.”

“I can’t…” she breathed. “I just…” she took in a shaky breath, her whole body trembling in his arms, filling him with concern for what was ailing her. “I really can’t, Ben I’m just—“

“Rey, please.”

“No,” she insisted, though she clutched him tighter as more tears leaked from her eyes. “I can’t, I really can’t…”

“Rey, something’s bothering you, and I just want to help.”

“No.”

“Rey—“

“ _ No!” _ she shouted, and she pulled away from him then, standing up and turning away so he couldn’t see her face as she crossed her arms over her chest, muttering something he couldn’t hear. 

Ben sighed exasperatedly as he too stood up and placed his hands over his hips. “Whatever it is, Rey, I’ll… I’ll help you… just tell me why you’re—“

And all of a sudden, Rey erupted instead, shooting ash and dust miles high into the stratosphere as she turned to face him, walking forward until she was completely invading his space as she yelled, “ _ Because I’m stressed,  _ Ben! And I can’t take it anymore! I’m stressed about finals! I’m stressed about the semester! I’m stressed about our stupid fucking bet ending because I—“ she took in another short breath, looking like she was debating it before she finished the explosion in the most beautiful series of words he’d ever heard. “Because, I love you. I’m fucking in love with you, and I’m too scared to tell you,  _ and—FUCK _ , Ben, I really, really, love you.”

Ben’s heart stopped in his chest. Time stopped altogether as the ground suddenly began to spin beneath him. He was vaguely aware that he lost control of his footing as he collapsed backwards into his chair, but it all felt like it was in slow motion as his throat went dry and his eyes filled with tears as he realized the truth of what she’d just said. 

_ I love you _ . The words echoed through his mind on repeat.  _ I love you. I love you. I love you.  _ He’d been so caught up in the past week with how the hell he’d say it to her, that he’d never even stopped to consider that she might beat him to it. A chorus of emotions filled him, each one singing in the most beautiful harmony he’d ever heard with the last; sheer delight, shock, relief, and most of all, love itself flooded his brain as he stared up at her in a shocked relief as she blinked the last of her tears from her eyes. 

Both of them were trembling as they stared at one another in the aftermath of her confession, Ben’s hands gripping the sides of his chair as if it were the only thing keeping him attached to the Earth. His breath was shaky as he slowly stood up, and continued to look at her like she’d just given him the world. Rey on the other hand was looking at him with that one nameless emotion in her eyes again, and suddenly it became very clear what she’d been telling him all along with that stare. She loved him, even if she hadn’t always been aware of it, her very soul was reaching out to him, telling him all the things she’d never said. 

The moment of silence was broken when Rey sniffled again, wiping her nose as he stood up and stepped closer to her. “Ben, please say someth—“

She never finished her sentence, in a split second, Ben listened to her words, closed the remaining distance between them, and wrapped a hand around the base of her skull as he brought his lips to hers, interrupting her plea for a response. Rey gave him a startled moan, freezing against him for a few seconds before she melted into the kiss, her arms wrapping around his neck as she pulled him down to her, and he felt his heart doing backflips of joy in his chest as their lips parted and came together over and over again. 

He loved her, and now he knew. Now after all this time, all these months of waiting and not knowing how she felt, he knew. She loved him just as much as he loved her, and it wasn’t in his head, it wasn’t just a really good dream he was about to wake up from at any second now, it was real. Her confession was real, her feelings were real, and so were his. 

Ben broke the kiss before he wanted to, and she let out a whimper at the loss of contact, but he quickly shook his head, and cupped her cheek with one of his hands as he pressed his forehead against hers. “I—“ he tried to say it, but his voice cracked over the lump that had formed in his throat, then he felt tears brimming in his eyes as he looked at her. It took him another moment to steady himself, but then he breathed out slowly, evenly, and finally he was ready to say it. “I love you, too, Rey,” he said, then he let out a noise somewhere between a cry of joy and a sob. “I really fucking love you, and I’ve been trying to tell you for weeks, I just didn’t—“ 

Rey shut him up with a delighted laugh as she kissed him again, sending another spike of adrenaline coursing through his veins. Ben’s entire body hummed with energy as he returned her kiss. In his nineteen years of life he’d never felt so whole and content—like he’d finally come home after a long day— as he did in the aftermath of their confessions. 

Ben forgot about everything else that was stressing him out, his finals, his fear of failure—everything that wasn’t Rey didn’t exist to him as he slowly backed her up against the wall, living for the way she moaned into him as her back made contact with its cool surface. He pulled away for a split second, allowing them both to laugh at the sound before he kissed her again, his tongue slipping into her mouth as they continued kissing like it was their first time. In a way, it really was. It felt like he was rediscovering Rey now that he knew she loved him, now that she knew he loved her back, and they had a chance at something beautiful beyond the bet they’d started in late September. 

He remembered the first time they’d kissed in that library, how she’d pushed him bad against the shelf, how he’d done the same moments later… Now there they were in that very same library, in the very same group study room they’d met in that night, repeating history in the greatest way possible. 

With every single brush of his lips against hers, he said it again;  _ I love you, _ he told her as his hand angled her head back to allow him better access to her mouth.  _ I love you,  _ as his hips pressed hers more forcefully against the wall, and she moaned her response into him. 

Rey’s arms wrapped around his neck, then, and without breaking the kiss, she jumped up, and wrapped her legs around his hips before letting him pin her to the wall again, and she laughed in delight as his kisses began to trail down the line of her jaw. “Ben,” she breathed, and somehow her voice sounded more beautiful than it ever had before as she spoke it again, “Ben, we should probably…  _ fuck,  _ we should probably talk about this.”

He groaned as he pulled away from her neck, but he continued to hold her tightly against the wall as he looked down at her, taking in her still red and puffy eyes, her wet cheeks and kiss swollen lips—he reckoned he didn’t look much better. Both of them were panting hard still as they came down from the intensity of the kiss, and Rey reached up a hand to brush a black lock of hair from his face as she sighed. “You… did you mean that?” she asked softly. 

He gave her a nod, then he blinked, and much to his dismay, another tear fell from his eyes, and his voice trembled as he answered her, “Yeah, did you?”

“I did,” she replied, sniffling as she looked between his eyes. “I really did, Ben, I’ve 

been… I’ve been trying to tell you for about as long as you’ve been trying to tell me.”

“So when would that be, then?” he asked, trying to stop himself from shaking as he held her. 

“I don’t know.” She laughed, then she wiped her nose again. “I just woke up one morning and… you were next to me and I just… I realized this was how it was always supposed to be.” A relieved sigh escaped him, and she rested a hand on his chest, feeling his heart beat beneath her palm. “What about you?”

“Hmm?”

“When did you know?”

The answer came to him immediately. He remembered vividly how he’d come to realize his true feelings for her. The night of that one stupid party they’d gone to when they’d torn off their clothes and made a run for the lake, when just hours later he’d laid down beside her on the futon and told her everything he didn’t have the courage to say. “I think I started to feel something from the beginning,” he admitted to her. “Rey, when you kissed me… I just… I thought it was excitement at first, I thought… I’d never been kissed… I didn’t know it wouldn’t feel that way with everyone… but I didn’t know I loved you until the night of the frat party.”

She laughed. “So you realized you loved me after you saw me naked?”

Both of them snorted as Ben set her back down on the ground, then he sighed. “Rey I realized I loved you from the minute you kissed me, I just stopped denying it after I saw you naked,” he said, then he wrapped his arms around her waist. “And god damn it, I should’ve told you sooner, but I was—“

“You were afraid,” she finished for him, then she nodded. “God, me too. I was so scared of how you’d react since you had so little experience and I wanted your first love to be something amazing and I… I didn’t think I could do you justice.”

“But you can, you do every day.” His hand reached up to hold her chin. “Rey, knowing you love me is the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and when this bet ends? I don’t want us to stop,” he said, finally speaking out loud the things he’d only ever said to her in her sleep. “I never want us to stop.”

“Me neither. Ben, I… I…” she laughed, then slammed a palm into her forehead. “Fuck, why is this still so hard to say?”

“I know the feeling. But…” he took in a deep breath. “We need to stop letting fear stop us from saying what we’re thinking.”

“Agreed.”

“So say it.”

Rey’s breath hitched, then she sighed, placing her hands on his arms as she closed her eyes. “Ben, I want… I want to be with you,” she said, then she loosened her grip, and opened her eyes. “I want us to be together as more than just friends with benefits. I… I want us to be a couple—a real one. So if you love me too, please god say—“

“Yes,” he answered her, then he let out a relieved exhale as he wrapped his arms around her. “I want to be with you, too.”

Rey laughed delightedly, then he tightened his grip on her, and spun her around as she cried out from shock. Despite everything that was stressing him, Ben found that moment was the first time he was able to breathe in ages. Finally the secret was off his chest, she loved him back, and they were together. Everything has fallen into place, and now there was just one thing that remained. Their last unfulfilled point on the bet. 

Ben spun her around until they reached the table their things were on, then he held her close, warned her to hold on, and waited until her legs once again wrapped themselves around his hips before he reached down with one hand, and swept everything that was in their way off of the desk. He set her down onto it slowly, bending them both over the desk as he laid Rey on the wooden expanse of the table. The hazel in her eyes had never been more present as she stared up at him, her breathing shaky as her hands came down to press against his chest. “Ben, are you sure?”

_ God _ , he loved her. He gave her a nod in response. “Have I ever told you how much I love it when you ask me that?”

“No,” she replied, then she swallowed. “Do you have a condom on you?”

Ben smirked, and raised an eyebrow at her as he asked the question “ _ do you really need to ask me that?”  _ without saying the words. Rey grinned up at him, then she let one of her hands slide up, and her fingers wound themselves into his hair. “I love you,” she said quietly. 

“I know,” Ben replied, then before she could protest, he bent down the rest of the way, and kissed her. 

Rey smiled as she returned the kiss, and he wondered how kissing her in the aftermath of their confessions was already so much better than before. He hadn’t thought anything could match or surpass the feeling of her warm lips meeting his before, but he’d been oh so horribly wrong. Before their confession, they’d both been holding back, that much was clear to him. Their kisses now were much more passionate, much more mind spinning than they’d ever been before, and as his trembling fingers reached for the top button of the red and black flannel she’d borrowed from him that morning, he suddenly felt like he had the first time they’d done this. It felt like he was losing his virginity all over again as they began to explore each other for the first time as proper lovers, and as his hands reached for the next button, he knew this was what it would always feel like. 

The days of wondering and asking questions were over; of that much he was certain as he undid a third button, deepening the kiss while she whimpered against him. His fingers moved down to a fourth button, then she put her hands over his, and pulled back from the kiss. “Wait, are you sure you’re willing to risk getting caught?”

“I am if you are,” Ben replied, then he smirked. “Besides it’s…” He pulled his phone out of his pocket, wincing when he saw the time on his screen. “Half past two, Rey. I don’t think anyone is going to walk in on us.”

She laughed, and slowly nodded her response. “Okay then, let’s do this,” she replied, pulling him back down to her as she carded her fingers through his hair, and his hands resumed their work on her shirt buttons, unbuttoning them one by one as he kissed her thoroughly. 

Rey reached for the zipper of his hoodie at the same time, pulling down the zipper in one fell swoop, then she reached up to his shoulders, and pushed the fabric down the length of his arms. He was forced to take his hands off of her with a whimper as he tugged the ends of his sleeves off of his hands, then he tossed the jacket aside. “You absolute  _ minx. _ ”

She giggled at that. “Indeed, but uh… Ben, we are still technically in public, so as much as I would love to take off all your clothes, I’d much prefer not to be caught completely naked…”

Ben snorted, but she was right. They could entirely still get walked in on, and though the only window into the study rooms was a very tiny one over the door handle, He didn’t exactly want to give any stragglers who might peep in a view. “We’ll also have to be fast,” he murmured, his hand slowly sliding up her skirt as she wrapped her arms around his neck, and he pulled her up so she sat upright against the edge of the table. 

Rey’s breath hitched as she watched him, but he ignored it as he kept going. “But I’m still going to make love to you like you deserve, Rey, like I should’ve been all along.” His voice was shaking again as his fingers found the fabric of her underwear, and he slipped it aside, gasping at how wet she was under his touch. 

A strained groan left her as one of his fingers slipped inside her entrance, and she tightened her grip on his shoulders. “And how is that, exactly?” she asked, her voice much more high pitched than normal. 

“Like this,” Ben said, then he added another finger, and he curled them both inside of her, causing her to arch against him at the perfect angle for him to capture her lips in another kiss as he began to pump his fingers in and out of her, living for the way she hummed from his touch. 

Rey’s hands didn’t stay still as she kissed him, they lost their grip on his shoulders to slide down his t-shirt covered chest—and oh, how he wished he wasn’t wearing anything so he could enjoy this properly, but alas, they were in a library—and went all the way down to the button of his jeans. She smirked into the kiss as she slipped the button through the loop with one hand, and began to palm his growing erection with the other, driving him weak in the knees. His fingers stalled for the briefest hint of a second, then he continued to thrust them in and out of her with a renewed vigor determined not to let her win as her nimble fingers tugged his zipper down. 

He gasped as she broke away from the kiss, and began to press kisses onto his neck, her open mouth latching onto a spot that would entirely be visible as she reached around his waist, her hand slipping into the back pocket of his jeans—which he was only vaguely aware of as he lost himself to the feeling of Rey’s mouth on his neck. She dug around for a moment, her hand brushing against the swell of his ass—which was also doing things to him— until she found the foil wrapped condom she was looking for. 

His head was spinning as she let go of his neck, but he wasn’t quite lost enough to forget what he was doing to her, and he picked up the pace of his fingers inside of her, causing her to swear loudly. Once she adjusted to the new pace, she moaned as she leaned her head against his chest, then she sighed, “Fuck you, Ben,” before she took the condom wrapper to her lips, and tore it open with her teeth. “Now, as much as I am loving this— _ fuck! _ —we do have to be fast, and you’re finishing with me this time.”

Blinking at her, Ben stopped the motion of his fingers, and slowly pulled them out of her with a nod. “Well, I won’t say no to that,” he said with a smirk, then they both giggled as Rey pulled the condom out of the wrapper, and reached for his jeans. 

She slowly pulled his jeans and boxers down just enough to free his cock from their confines, then she paused, and laughed at something. “What?” he asked.    


“Just… it’s strange, I’ve done this with you before, but…”

“It feels like you’re reliving the first time?” Ben asked, then she smiled at him, and he reached up to cup her cheek. “I feel it, too.”

Rey sucked in a sharp breath, then she slowly reached for his cock, taking him in her hands, and gently stroking him a few times. Ben’s own breathing grew shaky as she touched him, then he watched her roll the condom over his tip, and if he closed his eyes he remembered the darkness that surrounded them in his car the first time they’d done this.  _ “Rey, I’ve never been more scared or certain of anything in my life.” _

He remembered her kiss then as she slid the condom over his erection, and now she was staring up at him, her eyes telling him everything that she was thinking and feeling as she finished her work, then she reached down, hiking up her skirt until her fingers found their grip on her underwear—the same pair she’d worn the first time he’d eaten her out, the ones that said “kiss me, I’m Irish,” on the ass, and now filled him with nostalgia—and she lifted her ass off of the table as she slid them off, letting them pool at her the ankles of one of her thigh-high boots before she turned to him again.

A sly, but loving grin appeared on her face, then she reached up with one hand, and let her fingers weave themselves through his hair again. She opened her mouth to say something, then she shook her head, deciding against it as she pressed her lips to his as she scooted toward the edge of the table, and took his cock in her free hand, lining him up with her entrance. “Ben…”

“I love you,” was all he said in response, then he slowly pushed into her as her legs wrapped around him anew, and her breathing shook as she took him inch by inch until she reached the limit they’d set weeks ago. Ben found his hands were trembling as he reached up with one to let his fingers find their grip in her hair, then he pressed his lips against hers, kissing Rey softly as he pulled back, then he thrusted into her again, causing them both to moan into the kiss. 

He broke it again as he began to fuck her against the table, relishing in the way she felt around his cock as the hand he had in her hair pulled her head back, and he got his revenge for what she’d done to his neck a moment earlier. “Fuck, Rey,” he breathed against her skin as he began to press kisses to the column of her throat. 

A deep, throaty chuckle left her at that, and he couldn’t see her face, but he could envision the sly grin growing on it as she replied, “Isn’t that what you’re doing?”

They both paused for a moment, barely avoiding collapsing into giggles as Ben continued to thrust into her. He still managed to laugh obscenely between the kisses he pressed on her neck, only just gathering his wits in time to suck a mark in a place that would also be rather visible and difficult to cover up. She threw a barrage of light hearted insults at him, but as he continued thrusting into her, they became less and less coherent and sounded more like gibberish as he pulled away from her neck, and kissed her lips. 

Ben knew the risk of them being walked in on or spotted. He knew, and he didn’t care. He didn’t give half of a shit, as a matter of fact, as he continued to make love to Rey in a way that had her calling his name like it was a prayer, she deserved that since he’d made her wait so long to know how he felt about her. She deserved the whole goddamn world and more. So despite the risk of being caught and all that would entail, he took his time with her, letting their climaxes build slowly, sweetly—like they had all the time in the world. 

At one point, Ben’s free hand slowly slid up beneath his still half-buttoned flannel, finding the sheer lace of her bra, and taking her nipple between his fingers, massaging it until he felt it harden beneath his touch, and she was moaning in his hands. Rey swore loudly as his hand moved away to the other breast, then she let out another shuddering breath as he repeated his action there, keeping his hand occupied as he continued to bring them both toward their orgasms. 

Eventually, Rey’s gasping breaths gave way to involuntary moans, and he could hear her muttering the very same words she’d told him the first time they made love in his ear, making him forget the library, forget that it was finals week, and forget that they were technically in public. “Ben, I’m… I'm close,” she warned him, and he could hear a  _ “fuck, I’m close,”  _ echoing in his head. 

Ben nearly lost himself in that memory of their first time, though somehow as he felt her getting close, this felt even more intense. It was as they’d been saying. This was like another first time. Ben 

“Then come, Rey,” he told her, then he moaned as he picked up the pace, thrusting into her again and again as he too found himself growing close. “Come for me.”

Rey came with a shout of his name on her lips, and as he felt her fluttering around him, Ben suddenly felt his own orgasm building within him, but he ignored it, putting all of his attention into making hers the best she’d ever had. She buried her face into his shoulder, crying out into it as she rode through it on his cock. He remembered the first time she’d done that, and every time in between that didn’t come close to the way it felt now.  

She slowly came down from her high, trembling around him as he continued to fuck her through the aftershocks, and she pulled away from him, allowing Ben to see the pink that flushed across her cheeks. “Your turn,” she panted, then she reached up, and grabbed his hair in her hands as she pulled his lips down to hers in a searing kiss. 

And if the kiss didn’t do it, the sound of her voice--much huskier and deeper than it normally was--would have. He cried out as he came into her, breaking the kiss as he buried his face in the juncture between her neck and shoulder, trying to mute the noises he was making as he rode out his own orgasm until he felt completely spent. “Rey,” he breathed, then he slowly pulled out of her, and he moved to kiss her again, but she put up a finger to his lips, both of them panting as they came down from the high they’d achieved together. 

Again they simply sat there staring at one another for a moment, basking in the afterglow of what they’d just done in the library. In  _ public.  _ Huh, why hadn’t they thought of just slipping into one of these group study rooms all along? Well, they were the same two people who were very much in love, but had never decided to say anything to one another about it, so he figured it made sense they would also be stupid about crossing off their last point on the test. 

Ben peeled the condom off of his cock, and tossed it in the garbage bin the library had set up in the corner before he turned his attention back on her, his heart racing at the sight of her half unbuttoned flannel and her black skirt that was hiked all the way up her thighs to expose what was between them. He stared at her for perhaps a second too long, then he swallowed as his eyes met hers. Her tongue darted out to lick her lips, then she smiled softly at him. “We should probably get dressed,” she replied, reaching down to her ankle for where she’d left her underwear hanging awkwardly around one foot, and putting it back on over her hips. 

He snickered quietly under his breath as he pulled his pants back up over his hips. “You’re probably right,” he said, then he reached for the button of his pants, and as he dressed himself, he watched almost hypnotized while she buttoned up his flannel. 

The fly of his jeans was zipped up at the exact same moment that she buttoned her last button, and he stood there for a moment once they were dressed, drinking her in in the afterglow. She slid off of the table, then she looked up at him, and wrapped her arms around his neck, and as the minutes passed, they just stayed like that staring at one another as the events of the last hour slowly settled over them. 

“We did it,” she said after a while. “We… We won the bet.”

“We did.”

“I don’t care.”

“Neither do I,” Ben replied, then he reached forward, and wrapped his arms around her waist. “All I care about is you.”

“Me too,” she said, then she laughed softly. “I just hate that it took us this long to see that.”

He shook his head in response. “I don’t.” He traced circles into her back as he looked down at her. “Rey, we’ve still got the rest of our lives to see it… To explore what this is. I know it’s love, but… I’m still new to what that means, so if you’ll join me in figuring it out…”

“I already said yes, Ben,” she replied.    


“You sure you won’t regret it?”

“I’m sure,” she said, gently stroking his hair as she looked up at him with that look in her eyes again, and she grinned at him. “‘Cause if the last two months were this good, I can’t wait to see what the next few years look like.”

Ben’s heart melted in his chest as he pressed his forehead against hers. “I’m sorry I made you wait so long.”

“It’s okay, I made you wait, too,” she said, then she leaned forward, and kissed him on the cheek. “And we’ve got time to make it up to one another.”

Excitement raced through his veins at the thought of having year after year with Rey in his arms, and he found himself smiling broadly as he relaxed into her touch. “I love you.”

Rey giggled, then she leaned forward, her breath ghosting over his lips as she replied tritely with, “I know.”


	13. Saint Solo's Eulogy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh god I don't know where to start. I can't believe I finished this I'm crying a lot. um... thank you so much to everyone who's commented. It seriously means the world to me and it's gotten me through a difficult time. Also. This is now marked as a series, but this is the end of the story. The only things that will appear in the series are the fic scenes from Rey's perspective/added one shots I might sporadically do. But other than that, this is the end of the line. It's been one hell of a ride guys. Also thanks to the writing den for inspiring me to do this, this was supposed to be a one shot but it now has a soul, so oops. BUT THANK YALL SO MUCH ILL SHUT UP NOW

Studying for finals came easy after everything was out in the open. He and Rey spent the rest of the night breezing through their study guides, quizzing each other on every little detail until they had them all just right. By the mercy of whatever god was out there, nobody ever came in and said anything to them about what they’d done at half past two in the morning, and Ben started to think that maybe, just maybe, they’d successfully gotten away with it. 

By the time they walked out of the library at half past seven, Ben was feeling like he could conquer the world. It was as if all his stress from the tests, from the studying, and from the whole semester overall had just melted away in one night. All because of the girl who was walking him to his first final with her arm slung proudly around his waist as they walked like—well— like he’d seen couples walk. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, and pressed a kiss to her forehead midway through when he absolutely did not need to because he had missed out on enough time not showing her how he felt every single minute they were together. 

They walked into that first hall still holding onto each other, earning some odd locks from exhausted students who looked like they were actually suffering through finals week, wondering just what the hell these absolute assholes could have to smile about. But Ben had the sneaking suspicion that as long as she was by his side, he would never, ever stop smiling. Technically she’d always been there with him. For the last sixteen or so odd years, she’d been his best friend, but he wondered if they could repeat that number as more. 

Rey walked with him until they reached the doors of his classroom, then she turned to face him before he walked into the doors, and he met her eyes. “You nervous?”

“No,” he replied honestly, then he reached for her hand, and it occurred to him that aside from the times they’d run together in the library, they’d hardly ever just held hands for the sake of holding hands. He’d only been doing it for about two seconds, but already he decided he quite liked the feeling of holding Rey’s hand. “Are you?”

She shook her head, and smiled broadly up at him. “No, not at all,” she replied, then she adjusted their handhold so she could lace her fingers through his. “But… good luck either way. Even if you are definitely secretly nervous.”

Ben snorted quietly. “I’m not nervous,” he insisted, then Rey’s nose crinkled as her smile grew wider, and she stepped closer to him, noticeably within kissing distance. His heart raced in his chest as her free hand came up to caress his cheek. 

“Ben, I’ve known you since we were three. I can tell when you’re nervous,” she said, leaning in a little bit closer, the proximity making his breath hitch even after he’d been with her in just about every way he could think of at this point. 

Still, he wasn’t nervous. Not about the test at least. “Maybe, but I don’t think the final has anything to do with it,” he told her, then he watched her giggle slightly before she stood up on the balls of her feet, and slung her arm around his shoulders to pull him down into a short but passionate kiss that sent his mind spinning, making him forget everything he’d learned over the last several hours for a few seconds as his arm wrapped around her waist, and he pulled her flush against him. 

She pulled apart from him just before he could think to deepen the kiss, and he felt a slight hint of misery enter his mood as she let go of his hand, then she placed her palms on his shoulders. “You’ve got this,” she promised him. 

“Rey, I’m not worried about the damned test, I’m nervous about this…” he said, looking between her eyes. “About us.”

“Me too. But I love you, so I’m willing to figure it out if you are.”

“I love you, too,” he promised her, then he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead before sparing his lecture hall door a nervous glare. “Wish me luck.”

“You can do it!” she said excitedly as he slowly extracted himself from her, and made his way to the door. Once his hand was on the handle, he looked back at her one last time, and as she gave him an encouraging smile, he knew that test would be a breeze. He returned the smile, then he pushed the door open, and walked into the lecture hall, finally ready to bring the semester to a close. 

The test was the easiest thing he’d ever taken. Even as his thoughts spent half the time completely focused on Rey, everything flowed from his head so perfectly it was as if he’d been born with the knowledge in his head. He turned in his test to the professor, then he walked out of the hall, ready to find his best friend—his  _ girlfriend— _ and tell her how well it had gone. He knew she would be getting out of her own final within the next five minutes or so anyway—assuming she hadn’t finished early. 

Ben walked around campus, smrking when he passed the water fountain they’d nearly gotten arrested in as he made his way to the building he remembered her chemistry class was in. He wound up walking down the hall toward her classroom just as the doors opened, and a couple of students poured out. One was some dude that was in his and Poe’s English class, and the other brought a smile to his face at the sight of her half ponytail and weary hazel eyes. 

When she saw him, Rey breathed a sigh of relief as she walked forward, wrapping her arms around his neck as she brought her lips to his cheek, then she embraced him in full. His own found themselves encompassing her waist as he melted into her touch, almost missing her question of, “How’d it go?” as his mind drifted to how warm she felt pressed up against him. Would he ever stop reacting to her in this way?

“Uh… great, I breezed through it,” he said proudly as he pulled apart from the hug just enough so that he could see her. “How was yours?”

She shrugged. “Could’ve been better, but I don’t think I failed,” she replied. “You kept me quite distracted last night, you know.”

A small giggle escaped him, then he leaned down to whisper in her ear, “I can distract you again in my dorm, if you want.”

“Oh, I was hoping you’d say that,” she breathed, then she pulled back from him again, and took his hand. “Come on, if we hurry we can beat Finn back to your dorm, his first final ends twenty minutes after mine.”

Before he could even think to answer the obvious  _ yes,  _ she was tugging on his hand, and they were running through the halls, pushing past students like they had in the library both two months and a lifetime ago. The smile on his face grew broad as they burst out onto the snow covered ground, the white powder crunching beneath their feet as they ran across the courtyard, hauling ass across campus to where their dorm building resided. 

Eventually the building loomed ahead of them as they passed the health center—where just a few days ago Rey had finally been given the clearance to remove her wrist brace—but by then they’d slowed down significantly, both of them horribly out of breath as they made their way over the frozen ground. Ben stared at the snow as they passed it, fascinated by the little crunching noise he heard beneath his boot. Without realizing it, he stopped, letting Rey walk ahead of him. Once he was aware that he was just standing still, Ben bent down to touch the snow, then he scooped it into his hands, and packed it into a ball before grinning mischievously at Rey’s retreating back. 

He wound his arm behind him, taking aim for her head before he hurled the compacted white powder forward, watching it fly through the air before exploding gloriously upon impact with the back of her skull. A soft gasp came from her mouth, and he bit his lower lip as she whirled around, her jaw slack as she stared at him. His lips parted in a shit eating grin, then he bent down into the snow again, and began preparing another snowball. 

“Oh, you are so dead Ben solo!” she shouted, then she too bent down, and gathered snow in his hand. 

Her snowball exploded on his face just as he was standing up to launch his second one. Ben spat ice out of his mouth as he laughed hard enough to develop another pair of abs, collapsing against the ground as he all but abandoned his snowball.  Rey was immediately creating another one, rushing forward to sling hers in the exact same spot the last one had landed in.

Unfortunately for her, Ben hadn’t dropped his second snowball, and he managed to hit her instead, causing her to fall on her ass in front of him. For a moment, she looked stunned, but then her eyes looked up and met his, and they both burst into a new fit of giggles. He scooted over to her in the snow, already wincing at the feeling of its wetness seeping through his clothes, but intrigued by the opportunities wet clothes presented him with later. After all, he’d have to change once they got back in his dorm, and so would she. 

Ben lifted a hand to her cheeks, watching as a few stray pieces of snow fell from his arm as he cupped her cheek. “We should come out here again later,” he said. “You know, with gloves, jackets… everything. Maybe invite everyone else.”

“A proper snowball fight?” Rey asked, then she quickly nodded. “Oh, I am  _ in _ .”

A smile grew wide on his face, then he slowly leaned forward, and brushed some of the snow out of her hair before he captured her lips in another kiss. Rey melted into it, and he felt one of her hands reach for his free one, holding it as she kissed him back. 

It was over before he wanted it to be, but when she leaned her forehead against his, Ben found himself perfectly content with it. He loved her, and he’d kiss her for hours or a split second if she wanted him to. “Do you want to get inside?” he asked, feeling the cold starting to settle over him as the seconds passed.

She gave him another firm nod. “Yeah, I do,” she replied, then he noticed she was shivering a little despite the layers they were both wearing. “It’s quite cold.”

Ben slowly pulled away, then he stood up, and offered her his hand, pulling her to her feet before he began to dust himself off of the freezing, wet powder. Rey laughed as a particularly stubborn clump of snow cling to his shoulder, then she reached up and brushed it off of him before she took care of her own clothing. He watched her the entire time, hypnotized by the snowflakes in her hair, the pink flush that had crept up her cheeks, and the little frustrated tilt of her mouth as she realized how damp she was. Oh, they were truly too far gone, weren’t they?

She looked up at him again once she finished, then the joking look on her face softened, and she took his hands in hers. “I’m ready when you are.”

Shivering slightly against the cold, Ben smiled at her, and let go of one of her hands as they resumed their walk toward the front doors of their building. His heart skipped a beat in his chest when Rey took his arm in her other hand, and leaned against him as they walked up to the elevator. For the first time, it started to feel real that they were now more than just friends, that they were actually what he’d wanted them to be since he’d first realized he loved her. It made him feel sheer glee coursing through his veins as the elevator dinged, and they got on board. 

As it had been many other times before, they were alone when they boarded the elevator, but this time Ben wasn’t on her immediately once he pressed the fifth floor’s button. No, this time he simply leaned against the back wall, sweeping Rey into his arms as she laughed in delight. Her own arms came to wrap around his waist, her head resting on his shoulder as she simply let him hold her, which felt much sweeter and more intimate than anything else they’d ever done somehow. 

“Hey, Ben?” Rey asked as the elevator began to ascend. 

“Hmm?”

“When are we going to tell our friends? About… all this?”

“Whenever we’re ready, but…”

“But?”

“Maybe once finals are over, then we can tell everyone. Even Poe. I feel like our friends would kill us if we didn’t tell him about the bet after how much shit we put them through,” he mused, causing Rey to guffaw into his shoulder, wet tears soon leaking from her eyes as she laughed so hard he was fairly certain his arms were the only thing keeping her standing. 

“Okay, that’s fair, we’ll tell Poe on Friday, then?” she asked in response once she’d calmed down. “I know we’ll still have more finals after that, Ben, but I figure the weekend will be enough time for the shock to wear off after that.”

Ben sighed as the image of Poe learning he had done more than him filled his head anew. It was the very same image he’d conjured up at the tail end of September, only now it was much more real. “Yeah, that’s… that’s perfect,” he replied, then he rested his chin over the top of her head as the elevator passed the third and fourth floors. His eyes slowly shut as the most intense contentment he’d ever felt washed over him, and his whole body relaxed as he continued to simply hold her. 

Rey hummed her assent, but didn’t say anything else in response. Both of them seemed perfectly okay with just existing in one another’s space in ways they’d never quite done when they’d thought they were just friends with benefits. The past two months had been absolutely perfect, but Ben hadn’t ever had an excuse to just randomly hold her. Friends could kiss if they wanted to. Friends could have sex. But they couldn’t hold one another the way Ben held Rey now. 

Even as the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened, he hesitated to walk outside for a few seconds, wanting to just savor this moment with her; to bask in the glory of their new relationship. It took him nearly until the doors started to automatically close again before he extracted himself from her, forcing his hand between the doors to stop them from closing on him and Rey. She laughed at him again, and then followed him down the hall to his dorm. “Oh, Ben,” she said between giggles, and he couldn’t help the smile that broke out in response as they approached his door. 

Rey slowly slipped her arms around his waist as he inserted the key into the lock, making him go dizzy at the feeling that wrought upon him. It was only worsened when he felt her lean forward, and press a kiss to his shoulder. “Rey, I’m… I’m trying to unlock the door,” he protested, but she only pressed another one a little higher up, inching slowly toward his neck and he was absolutely going to lose it if she kept doing that— “ _ Rey.” _

At last, she relented, then he finally got the door open, and he tugged her inside, completely ignorant of the sound of voices in the dorm as he pressed her against the wall. “You absolute  _ jerk, _ ” he breathed, and she cackled as her back met the cold, hard wall and the door slammed shut. He quickly thought to shut her up with another kiss, but before he could move, someone swore from the other side of the room. 

“Oh,  _ shit!”  _ Poe’s voice cried, then there was the sound of fabric ruffling as he managed to cover both himself and Finn before Ben saw him. 

For the first time, Ben could proudly say he hadn’t turned completely crimson at the sight of Finn and Poe together. All he did was let his jaw drop slightly and his eyebrows rose closer to his hairline, but other than that mild shock, he remained fairly neutral. If September Ben could see him now…

“Hi, guys,” he said awkwardly, trying not to make eye contact with a definitely naked—save for Finn’s bed sheets—Poe as he and Rey stood frozen at the front of the room. 

“Hi, Ben, uh… sorry… I forgot to put a sock on the door.”

“Actually, I think it was my turn to put a sock on the door,” Finn mumbled from somewhere beneath him, causing Ben to snort as his head poked out from under the bed sheet. While his boyfriend lowered his head to laugh in response, Finn reached up a finger from beneath his sheets, and mouthed, “Payback,” at him as Poe continued to openly chortle. 

Rey cleared her throat this time, interrupting the laughter and the awkwardness that had settled over her and Ben. “Well, as hilarious as this is, we should probably step outside for them to, uh, get decent,” she said, and Ben couldn’t help but notice that  _ she  _ had flushed the color of a ruby. The color filled him with satisfaction that he’d had no reaction while she’d been visibly flustered. Things really had changed after all. 

Instead of calling her out on it, though, Ben simply shot Finn and Poe another quick apology, rolled his eyes at finn, and followed her out of the dorm to wait for their friends†to get decent. Once they were outside, Ben collapsed against his own door, and he and Rey immediately broke out into more of the same laughter from before. 

“Did you see Finn?” Rey asked in disbelief. “Oh, I didn’t think he’d…”

“We underestimated him,” Ben replied, then he shook his head. “That’s almost the level of petty that I would pull.”

“Oh, yes it’s totally on par with sacrificing your virginity out of spite,” Rey murmured teasingly, then Ben’s face sobered, and he took her face gently in his hands, watching her eyes fill with concern as his thumbs swept over her cheeks. “Ben?”

“That was definitely my intent originally, but, Rey…” he breathed, feeling that damn lump forming in his throat again as tears threatened his eyes. “When you asked me if I’d rather be doing this with someone I loved; I already knew I loved you.”

The look was in her eyes again, and Rey’s breathing shook as he continued to confess to her. “Rey, that was the best night of my life, and I promise you, I didn’t do it out of spite. I forgot about the stupid fucking bet, I just wanted my first time to be with you.” His voice trembled as he spoke, then he swallowed. “This started out of spite, sure, but I think from the minute we kissed in the library I just knew… I wanted to explore  _ everything _ with you, and I still do.”

He blinked, and he could feel an embarrassingly hot tear streaking it’s way down his cheek as she stared at him, her own eyes growing misty as she reached up to wipe it away. “I loved you then, too, you know,” she said quietly, as if she spoke any louder she would spontaneously combust. “And it wasn’t about the bet for me either.”

“No?”

“No,” she replied, then she looked down as she rested one of her hands over one of his, and scoffed lightly with a smile on her face. “Ben, that night I accidentally told you I loved you for the first time, but you didn’t hear it, and I freaked out before I could repeat it.”

Ben was going to have a stroke, and he became more certain than ever that she would play a role in his death. “What?” He asked so softly even he almost didn’t hear it. 

“Yeah, I… it was when we got back from the parking lot and you went down on me on the futon,” she said, smiling slightly at the memory, and he found himself being taken back there. He could almost feel her come against his tongue all over again. “After I came, I was just… so much has happened that night, and my emotions were running high so I just said it.”

Suddenly that incoherent mumbling he’d heard on Halloween night became clear to him, and Ben suddenly pulled her to him in another kiss as he remembered hearing her mumble,  _ “I love you,” _ under her breath. Rey sniffled into the kiss, but she brought her free hand up to his shoulders, and pulled him down a little more. 

He felt a wet tear fall onto his cheek, though whether it belonged to her or to him he couldn’t quite tell. All he knew was he had never felt so ecstatic in his life as he wiped it away with his thumb. A part of him still couldn’t believe this was real. He’d certainly had dreams of this, of telling Rey how he felt, but he’d never thought reality could ever be better than his fantasies. 

Every time he kissed her he got so lost in the feeling the whole world around him disappeared, and he supposed that was probably a good thing, maybe even great. Except it sometimes was massively inconvenient since they were standing right outside the door, sharing what was easily one of their most emotional kisses, and they didn’t even notice when the door opened. They didn’t even hear the soft gasp of the person who caught them. 

It wasn’t until Ben heard the sound of Poe’s voice saying, “Well, fuck, Ben  _ finally!” _ That he finally pulled apart from Rey, and sniffles again as he wiped the tears they’d both been shedding from his face. He blinked the remaining mist away from his vision as he stared at Poe, who was now applauding him as Finn stood looking stunned in the background. “I’m proud of you, buddy.”

Ben laughed as he looked over at Rey, who was still wiping her own face clear of the salty tears that had gathered on her face as she too began to giggle. “Sorry, uh, we were just… talking.”

“Must’ve been some shit,” Poe breathed. “I mean, I’d figured you’d cry when you finally kissed a girl, but Jesus Christ, Ben.”

_ Oh.  _ Poe thought  _ that  _ was his first kiss? How wrong his friend was. Still, they’d agreed to explain the bet later. It was just simpler that way for everyone. “Yeah, uh, we’re both just really stressed,” he said, then he looked over at Rey. “Are you okay?”

She nodded. “I’m perfect,” she admitted, and her voice was still so soft and tender that Ben wanted to kiss her again, but he decided against it as they walked back into the dorm, and headed all the way for the mattress of his broken futon. 

“You guys need to tell me everything, cause, I’ve been waiting for weeks-” Poe started, but Ben was quick to interrupt him. 

“I’ll tell you everything later, but right now, we just want to get changed. We… uh, got into a bit of a snowball fight outside and we’re a bit cold,” he said, then Poe gave him a nod, and left the two of them alone while Ben walked over to his closet, and grabbed them both a change of clothes, giving Rey one of his t-shirts and the pair of sweatpants she always borrowed. 

She pressed a kiss to his cheek. “I’m gonna go change in the bathroom,” she told him, then she walked away, and disappeared behind the bathroom door much to Ben’s disappointment. 

Ben’s shoulders slumped as he turned back around, and made eye contact with Poe before reaching for the laces of his boots. “You turn around.”

“Yes, sir,” Poe said, then he and Finn both turned toward the opposite wall while Ben put on his new clothes. 

A minute later, Ben was completely dry, and Rey was shivering slightly as she walked out of the bathroom with her freezing wet clothes in hand. She set them down over Ben’s desk chair, then she wrapped her arms around his waist as she sighed contentedly. “Oh, that’s so much better,” she replied. 

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, thank you,” she said, then she slowly pulled apart from him, and she looked like she wanted to say something else, but she was interrupted.

“Don’t tell me,” Poe said as he adjusted the t-shirt he’d put on. “The pressure of finals week finally got to you both, and you finally, finally stopped being idiots and caved?”

Well, that was quite frankly almost exactly what happened, in Ben’s opinion. The pressure of finals week had cooked and cooked inside of them both until Rey had snapped first, and he’d quickly followed, leading them both into one of the greatest moments of their entire lives. Well, maybe Ben was only nineteen, but he was fairly certain he’d never forget that night in the library for as long as he lived. 

“Something like that,” Rey replied, and there was a hint of mischief to her tone that had the corners of Ben’s mouth twitching upward. “So we were planning on taking a nap to um… relieve some stress.”

Poe chuckled. “I can think of something else you can do to relieve your stress,” he muttered, and Ben smacked his arm as he walked past him, and climbed up into his lifted bunk, causing his friend to howl with laughter even though he had thought the exact same thing, but Ben was damn near out of condoms and right now all he wanted to do was hold Rey. 

She followed quickly after him, giving Poe the bird as she climbed into bed beside him. “Just let me sleep in peace, I didn’t get any last night.”

At this, Poe’s teasing tone sobered. “No, I totally get that. Don’t worry, I won’t pester you guys about this until you’ve gotten some rest.”

Rey breathed a sigh of relief as she joined Ben beneath his warm blankets. “Thanks, Poe,” she replied. 

“Oh, but I can promise you both, I’ll be merciless once you wake up, though.”

This time, they answered him together. “Thanks, Poe,” they grumbled at the same time, causing him to smirk at them again before he jumped back into Finn’s bed, then his boyfriend chastised him before he too joined him on the bed, and they immediately struck up a quiet conversation, leaving Ben and Rey effectively alone in his bed. 

He once again pulled her into his arms, holding her against his chest as he began to stroke her hair with one hand. She sighed against his touch,  slinging an arm around his waist as she held him closely against her. Something about the simplicity of it had him feeling so warm inside, like he was holding a tiny piece of the sun. Ever since their confessions he’d felt lighter, like every step he took he was walking on air. He could only hope he would never stop feeling this way, but he suspected as long as she was by his side, nothing would change. 

The warm, dry clothes they’d both changed into had made a world of difference, and Ben could already see color returning to her skin as he looked down at her. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head as he held her a bit more tightly in his embrace. Neither of them said anything, they simply held onto one another like they never had before. 

Throughout the last few months, they’d been very physically intimate. Yet they’d also been so heavily restrained. They hadn’t ever been able to just lie there and be in each other’s company without having to speak or sleep before now. It was quite possibly one of the most wonderful things he could’ve experienced. 

All he could hear was the quiet sounds of Finn and Poe muttering their conversation, then the sounds of their air conditioning unit as it pumped the dorm full of heated air to shield them against the cold outside. Both of these worked in harmony to make Ben feel perfectly content and at peace. He could tell they were also having a similar effect on Rey from how her eyelids began to droop in front of him, and he snorted lightly. “Go to sleep, Rey.”

“But it’s the middle of the day,” she grumbled with a yawn. 

“Doesn’t matter. Go to sleep, Rey.” 

“No…” she said, but her voice was already trailing off. 

“You’re getting sleepy…” he teased, then she shoved his shoulder gently, and her arm went slack around his waist once more. 

“I’ll kill you, I’ll figure out where murder is legal, and I will kill you.”

Ben snorted. “I’m looking forward to it, sweetheart.”

All she gave him in response was the barest hint of a grin before her eyes finally drifted shut, and her head sank deep into the pillow that was his shoulder. Ben watched as she fell into sleep’s clutches, then he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “See you later, Rey,” he whispered, then he too closed his eyes, and surrendered himself to his brain’s overwhelming desire for slumber. 

When he woke up, Rey was snoring softly in his arms, and he instantly felt the joy returning to him as his eyes opened to take in her sleeping face. The sun was setting outside, casting them both in a warm, orange glow as she slept on. He remembered the first time they’d made out on his futon, his first time finishing by her hand, and he smiled at how the sun illuminated her now like it had then. He didn’t think this sunset would go the way that one had but he was certainly enjoying the thought. 

Rey always looked so serene when she slept, and Ben was hypnotized by her every time. He could see her eyes shifting beneath her lids as she dreamt, making him wonder that the contents were. Did she dream of him as often as he did of her? If she’d been the one to crack and reveal her feelings first, surely he would’ve appeared in the unconscious musings of her mind, right?

Outside he heard a student whoop loudly in the courtyard, and Rey stirred in his arms. His grip tightened on her ever so slightly, as if somehow he could shield her from waking, but the effort was futile. Moments later, Rey’s eyes began to flutter open, and warm hazel locked onto dark brown, illuminated by the coral light. Neither of them said anything for a few seconds. All Ben could think to do was reach up a hand to touch the soft light that shone down on her face as she stared at him. The dying sun’s rays almost seemed to reflect off of her cheeks, leaving Ben completely entranced as she watched him. 

“What?” she asked quietly, then Ben shook his head. 

“Nothing, I just…” He swallowed nervously. “You’re beautiful, you know.”

Her breath hitched slightly as she looked at him, then she leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss to his lips. As it had been with all of the others, Ben’s heart was sent into a frenzy as he returned it, even though this kiss was far more calm, peaceful, and almost lazier than any other they’d shared before as they basked in the glow of the setting sun. 

If anyone asked what he wanted to spend every single day of his life doing, he’d tell them it was just lying in bed with Rey. Ben felt more than content with just kissing her lazily in his bed as they shared body heat to keep warm beneath his sheets. His hands gently stroked her hair as she pulled slowly away from him, and he let out a deep breath. “If that’s how I’m going to wake up every time you spend the night…”

“Oh, believe me, it will be,” Rey promised him, then she groaned. “But we’ve got to make it through the end of the semester first.”

Ben grunted his disapproval. “Fuck, why’d you have to say that, Rey. I was having a perfectly good afternoon, we were all having a perfectly good afternoon.”

“Who’s we?” she asked in confusion. 

It was Poe’s voice that answered her. “Well, you see, Rey, when there’s more than one person in a room, we is a wonderful pronoun.”

Ben lifted his head from the pillow as Rey turned hers, and they both glared daggers at their friend as he gave them a teasing grin. Finn smacked his boyfriend’s arm from where he laid beside him. “Leave Ben alone,” he grumbled, then Poe turned his attention on him, and the two of them struck up a conversation that he and Rey were clearly not meant to be a part of. 

A dramatic sigh left Ben’s lips as he sank back into his mattress, wanting to forget that anyone else was in the room but him and Rey. “The next few days are going to be absolutely miserable,” he said bitterly.

Rey shrugged. “I don’t know, it’s not so bad, we’ve still got a lot of studying to do, and our library is open rather late…” she said, lowering her voice as she spoke. Ben’s cheeks did flush this time, and he watched as she giggled at the sight. “I think you just need to replace your condom supply and we should end out the semester with a… bang.”

“That was the worst _ fucking _ pun I’ve ever heard.”

“So was yours,” she replied, shoving his shoulder with a laugh.

Ben pushed her back, pressing his hand into her shoulder as a devilish look appeared in her eyes, the one that always appeared right before she engaged him in a wrestling match. “Oh, bring it, Solo,” she said, then she rolled over more quickly than he anticipated, effectively pinning him to the mattress. 

“Bring it,” he hissed, though he was smiling as he pushed back against her, and commenced the afternoon’s match, ignoring Finn and Poe’s occasional commentary about how it sounded like they were having sex. 

The next few days after that were the slowest of his existence. Sure, Ben managed to pass all of his finals with flying colors, but he still couldn’t wait for the weekend to hit so they could finally move past the bet and just enjoy their relationship—not that he particularly minded their daliences in the library. Still by the time Friday evening rolled around, he was getting antsy, and he could tell Rey was feeling much the same though she tried her damndest to deny it. 

Over the course of the week, Ben and Rey had made their plans for the bet’s reveal clear to Phasma, Hux, Finn, and Rose. The plan wound up being that they would wait until everyone finished with their finals for the day, then they would show off to Poe just what Ben’s score was. He just had to keep it secret from Poe that he’d done everything aside from kissing Rey and, well, becoming a couple with her. 

When Friday finally came, Ben, Rey, Finn, and Rose were already gathered on both Finn’s bed and the mattress of Ben’s futon. He really did need to look into getting that repaired eventually, but that was one conversation with his dad he was  _ not  _ looking forward to having. No, definitely not. He would rather do anything else. 

They’d been waiting for a good fifteen minutes speculating on Poe’s reaction. Rose was worried he might actually be mad that Ben and Rey had kept this from him, but Ben had assured her he’d be fine. Poe knew what was and wasn’t his business, nosy as he might’ve been. Rey and Ben both thought he’d laugh his ass off, losing himself in an abdominal pain inducing round of laughter that would last for days before he finally wound up asking them everything. He’d probably react the way he’d reacted to Phasma’s score when he’d first seen it with his own two eyes. Now that was a facial expression Ben would  _ never  _ forget. 

Finn on the other hand thought his boyfriend might already know about the whole affair. At least, he might’ve known that they’d had sex or been fooling around. They hadn’t exactly been the most subtle. Ben wasn’t so sure, though, since he’d been super careful about not revealing their secret. But for all he knew Poe had seen right through their charade, and the minute they told him that they now had lower scores, he’d simply sit back and say, “Oh, so that’s why you’ve been having so much sex.”

The thought almost made him laugh. 

Eventually, someone else knocked on the door, and a part of Ben feared it was Poe, but when Rose got up to answer it, the people on the other side turned out to just be Phasma and Hux. Their other friends strode into the dorm with stupid grins on their faces. The former of the two was even rubbing her hands together wickedly. “So the man of honor isn’t even here yet?” she asked, then when the others shook their heads, she smiled even wider. “Excellent.”

“This has worked out in the most dramatic way possible,” Rey muttered, picking at a piece of dirt that had gathered on her shoe. “Of course the one person we’ve been expecting this whole time is the last one to show up.”

She had a point, the whole set up of the afternoon was already turning out to create the perfect sort of tension that had them all on their toes, biting their nails, and pulling at their hair as the clock ticked the afternoon by and the sun set lower in the sky while they waited for Poe to finally show up. While they waited, Ben reached over, and took Rey’s hand in his. “You nervous?”

“Nah,” she said, then she leaned on his shoulder. “I just want this over with so we can stop hiding.”

“I want it over with so you two can stop kicking us out whenever you decide to fuck,” Rose muttered, then the whole group burst into laughter, almost missing the sound of Poe’s knock on the door. 

Luckily, their ears still managed to be paying just enough attention that they didn’t miss it, and Ben was on his feet immediately, striding forward nervously as his eyes landed on the door knob. His breathing shook a little from how anxious he was as he pulled the door open, and Poe was looking up at him expectantly. “So, I heard you guys have something to tell me,” he said, clapping his hands together as he walked into the dorm, and Ben nodded as he shut the door behind him, then they both walked into the room. 

“Yeah, we do,” Ben replied as he resumed his position beside Rey on his futon’s mattress as Poe greeted Finn with a kiss before jumping up onto his bed beside him. 

“Okay, what’s up?”

Ben and Rey looked at one another hesitantly, then he gestured ahead of them. “You wanna start, or should I?” he asked. 

“You can start, this whole thing was your idea,” she reminded him, then he shrugged, figuring she had a good point. In the back of his head, he could hear the words he’d said that had started the whole thing,  _ “But think of how satisfying it would be to have a score lower than Dameron’s.” _

Oh, Ben was sure as shit satisfied, but now he needed to see Poe’s reaction to it. Already Poe looked more confused than he’d ever seen him. “What was your idea, Ben?” Poe asked curiously.

Ben bit his lower lip, then he gathered his courage, and took in a deep breath. “Do you remember the day we took the rice purity test?”

Poe quirked an eyebrow at him, a suggestive look appearing on his face as he took a minute to think through what he wanted to say. “I remember…” he said slowly after several awkward seconds had passed. “Why… wait…” He looked between Ben and Rey, his eyes growing wide. “Did you… Did you have  _ sex _ , Ben? With  _ Rey?” _

Before he could say anything else, Rey interrupted. “Yeah, he did. Frequently.”

“What?” 

Ben scratched his head as the corners of his mouth fought his willpower. “We um… We sort of made a bet after you left the dorm that day.”

“Ben was sort of feeling down about how much of a virgin he was,” Rey explained as Poe continued to stare at them in shock, his jaw never quite managing to close as he processed the news. “And well, he thought it would be hilarious if one day he came up to you and showed you that he had managed to beat your score on the test… And so did I…”

“No way,” Poe breathed. “You didn’t.”

“We did,” he and Rey said at the same time. Ben’s cheeks flushed red after that, then he ran his hand through his hair again, and continued. 

“I said I just needed to find someone to do it with, and Rey…” He looked back at her, remembering how quickly she’d offered to help him. 

_ “I’ll do it,”  _ she’d said. “ _ I’ll help you.” _

He could still feel the way his heart had raced in his chest at that. “She decided to help me.”

Poe slowly nodded, then he pointed to Ben. “So if you’ve made this bet, and won it… I want to see what your score is now,” he said, then he put his hands up. “I need proof, so you’re going to take the test again.”

Ben smirked at him. “I’m way ahead of you, buddy,” he replied, then he pulled out his phone, which had the complete checklist of everything he’d done already displayed on his screen once he put in his passcode. Once the screen was up, he handed it over to Poe, who began to read intently the second it was in his hands. 

“So when was your first kiss?” Poe asked, then he gestured to the front door of the dorm. “Cause I thought it was when I caught you two the other day, but apparently… I was wrong.”

This time, Ben gestured to Rey. “You want to tell him this bit?”

“Ben, it was your first kiss,” she protested, then she placed a hand on his arm. “You should be the one to tell this story, not me.”

“Yeah, Ben, what was that like?” Phasma asked, joining in on the conversation. “You never told any of us.”

He’d been shaking the entire time, he remembered. Their first kiss was so gentle he thought he might have imagined it, and he reckoned he’d never feel anything quite like that again, at least until the minute he lost his virginity in the backseat of his car. Ben remembered the way he’d taken charge after, his hand grabbing hold of the base of her skull as he kissed her deeply for the first time, the way electricity had sparked throughout his entire body for the first time. That feeling only grew better and better with every kiss, and Ben was certain it would keep going like that for a long time to come. 

“It was amazing,” he said, then he looked over at Rey. “It made me realize what I’d been missing out on all that time. But… You should’ve seen what happened in the library after that.”

Poe’s left eyebrow quirked at him again. “I’ll be asking you about that later, what I want to know about is… Let’s see…” he kept scrolling, then he grinned when he landed on something interesting. “Gone through the motions of intercourse while fully dressed? When did that happen?”

Again, Ben’s cheeks grew bright red at that memory. “We… we may have dry-humped on the futon.”

“I definitely walked in on them,” Finn replied, and Ben nearly lost it laughing as he remembered Finn walking in right when they’d started to get heated again. 

“We were finished by the time you walked in, Finn,” he protested.

“But I still saw too much!” He shouted, then he turned to his boyfriend. “I can’t tell you the things I’ve seen over the past couple of months because it’s more than I ever cared to.”

“You all knew about this?” Poe asked incredulously, looking between the other four people in the room. 

“We helped him,” Phasma replied, then she laughed. “I had to help him buy condoms for the first time. I hope you don’t mind me saying Ben, but you’re—”

Ben cut her off before she could finish that sentence. “A lovely person, thank you, Phas,” he said, then he cleared his throat. “But yes, they all knew. We realized we’d need help if we wanted to do this for real. So we told them all about it one by one… Except for you, Hux, I think Phasma told you.”

Their ginger-haired friend nodded. “Yeah, Phasma told me on Halloween.”

Poe blinked at them a few times, looking even more shocked and impressed than he had when he’d seen Phasma’s thirteen at the beginning of the semester. “Holy fuck, okay, wow…” he said, then he continued scrolling through the test. “So Rey, tell me… Who went down on who for oral?”

She giggled nervously, then she took in a deep breath. “Well, you see, Poe, we didn’t exactly do that just once. We sort of… reciprocated it… frequently.”

A squealing sort of gasp left Poe, and he collapsed into a ball on Finn’s bed as his gasps turned into obnoxious laughter. “What the  _ fuck? _ Okay, that’s… Wow, that’s amazing, guys, truly, I have… Wow… Wow… wow…” he breathed, then he kept scrolling, and he grinned. “Okay, I know about the skinny dipping and the streaking, but… I’ve got to ask, what was that like for you, Ben? Cause we never talked about it.”

Ben found himself smiling as he remembered that night. It was the night he first told her he loved her, and it would always hold a special place in his heart. Most of these nights would, though. He’d never forget them if he tried. “It was cold, but… That was a bit of a turning point, you know? I just…”

“That was the night of the frat party,” Rey said softly, no doubt remembering what he’d told her in the library the night before. 

He took her hand then, and laced their fingers together. “That was the night I realized that I was in love with you,” he said, and suddenly the energy of the room grew serious. “That’s when the bet stopped being a bet at all for me and more of just an excuse to kiss you whenever I wanted to.”

Rey’s lips parted as she beamed at him again. “Yeah, I started to realize it around then, too.”

“So, let me get this straight,” Poe said, interrupting the moment. “You absolute fucking idiots fell in love because you started having sex to spite me?”

“We fell in love before the sex, Poe,” Ben explained, but his friend still stared at him in disbelief. 

Another few seconds went by, Poe’s eyebrows furrowed in concentration as he looked down at another part of the test, then he glanced back up at Ben. “But what was that like, though? When did that happen?”

“Halloween,” Ben replied. “We were driving back from the haunted house, and we meant to study, we really did, but then I wanted to look out over the lake.”

Rey leaned her head on his shoulder, then she swallowed her own nerves. “And then I got a headache, and Ben forgot he’d left the condoms in the glovebox, so when I opened it looking for advil…”

Again, Poe interrupted them before she could say anything else. “Wait… Halloween… Did you guys have sex in your costumes?”

All Ben gave him in response initially was another awkward head scratch as he nodded. “Yeah, we… we definitely did…” he replied as his memory filled itself with his trembling fingers undoing the laces of Rey’s corset bit by bit until he slowly removed it from her, pressing kisses to her shoulders the entire time. “In the backseat of my car.”

“Holy shit, guys,” Poe replied, looking even more impressed by what they’d done as the minutes passed. “That’s… Wow… What was it like?”

“Amazing. She was… Not to share too much information, but it was… It didn’t feel any different than it would have if we’d actually been in a relationship. It was probably the softest, most loving thing I’d ever experienced. And then it… kept happening again and again after that.”

“Wait…” Poe’s eyes landed on the broken futon they all now sat upon, then he looked back up at Ben with wide eyes. “Is  _ that  _ why the futon is broken?”

“Yes it is!” Rose interjected, then she groaned. “Oh my god, Phasma and I went out to get coffee while you and Finn were studying on election day, and when we came back, the futon was broken and so was Rey’s wrist!”

This time, the groan came from Rey. “It was just a minor sprain!”

“You still couldn’t wait until later to have sex? You know, after we brought you coffee?”

“ _ You fucked hard enough to sprain your wrist and break a futon? _ ” Poe squeaked, then he laughed even harder. “Oh, Jesus Christ, I can’t do this… Anyway…” He took in a deep breath, then he exhaled slowly. “So… public sex?”

“The library the other night,” Ben answered, remembering how that beautiful night began. “That’s why we’re together now, officially. Rey was upset, we both were, cause we were stressed as hell the night before our first final…”   


“And I just lost it, I started yelling things, and one of those was ‘I love you,’ so…” Rey said slowly, her voice shaking a little bit. “And then we did it again on the table.”

“So you said it first, Rey?” Poe asked, then he waited until she nodded before he slowly began to applaud, the others following suit. A small chorus of claps filled the room, and Ben hung his head low as a blush crept up his cheeks. 

He remained quiet until Poe spoke again, setting his hand down on Finn’s mattress with a sigh. “Ben, we had a bit of a bet going on ourselves. See, they didn’t quite tell me all this, but after the conversation we had before the Thanksgiving trip, I had an interesting conversation with Finn, and he told me what I already suspected. That you were in love with Rey. That led me to have a little conversation with our piece of sunshine…” His eyes landed on his girlfriend, and he watched as Rey’s own cheeks turned completely crimson. “And she told me she had fallen in love with you. Now internally, this was absolute torture, because I knew the two of you had to tell each other how you felt yourselves. It wouldn’t be right otherwise.

“So we all had a conversation the night we sat in your family’s hot tub, and we decided we needed to get you two alone, see if you would confess your feelings, but you didn’t… Apparently you had sex though according to this list.”

“Yeah, we did,” Rey replied, then she coughed. “Phasma may have influenced us a little.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Phasma said innocently, pretending to be fascinated by something on her nail all of a sudden. 

“But anyway, we thought you were kind of hopeless after that, so we tried dropping hints, but then you were both too chicken to pick up on them,” Poe continued, then he laughed. “We honestly almost gave up, but now… Phasma and Hux owe me fifteen bucks. They thought Ben would be the one to cave.”

“Finn did, too!” Hux protested. 

“Way to throw me under the bus, you ass,” Finn said in response, then Ben shook his head as he glanced over at Rey, and they both fell into further laughter as the three of them handed Poe their money, while Rose and Poe smiled victoriously. 

Once the conversation about the money settled, Poe turned back to Ben and Rey, then he raised an imaginary glass to them. “Well, cheers, guys, I’m… I’m honestly proud. Now I need to figure out what I can do to drop another point… Holy fuck…” He froze, then he fell back against the wall. “I’m more pure than Saint Solo.”

“Saint Solo is dead, I killed him,” Ben said, then he laughed as Poe wailed sarcastically, and he turned to Rey as the others began to assure him that yes, he was indeed more pure than Ben Solo, Saint extraordinaire. “So now that that’s over…”

“And thank god, too, I was having trouble keeping this a secret,” she replied. 

Ben laughed softly, then he reached up to caress her cheek with one hand, and sighed. “Do you want to actually go out sometime? On an actual date? I heard an ice skating rink just opened up downtown.”

“I’d love to,” she replied, then she snickered quietly to herself for a second. 

“What?”

“I just think it’s funny how we’ve kissed, made love, and said ‘I love you,’ but we’ve never gone on a real date.”

Ben shrugged. “Better late than never, right?”

“Yeah, and ice skating sounds perfect by the way,” she said, then she leaned forward, and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. “Are you doing anything tomorrow?”

Ben closed the distance between them a little more, then he whispered into her ear. “Only you.”

Rey scoffed, but she was grinning as she pulled away from him just enough so that he could make out the details of her face. “Your puns will be the death of me, but I love you.”

“I love you, too,” he breathed, then he leaned forward, and kissed her, feeling that same electricity from their first kiss flowing between them in this one, reminding him of every kiss in between that he could only hope he never forgot. 

The feeling of Rey’s soft lips pressed against his had yet to grow old, and by now he knew it never would. They could be eighty and Ben would still the same sort of magic rush through him every time he kissed her, and a part of him looked forward to doing exactly that once they got old. A part of him was absolutely terrified by the thought, not that he minded spending the rest of his life with her, that had always been the plan, but he was certainly terrified at the prospect of doing it like... _ that.  _

With Rey he could envision a future, even at his young age he could already see there was something there—the potential existed between them to start something spanning decades. And it was all because of some stupid test they’d decided to show him on the internet. But sometimes that was just how it worked, wasn’t it? The smallest things started the biggest explosions, only this supernova was one Ben was glad to be a part of. 

One thing was certain, Ben no longer regretted asking what the Rice Purity Test was. No, as his lips caressed Rey’s he found that he didn’t regret it at all. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's it. Everyone knows everything and everything's out in the open. I'm probably not going to do an epilogue just cause I don't know what to do for it, but we'll see boys. Anyway, thanks again, y'all. I'm gonna go cry.


End file.
